Enter the Wutang Clan
by MrVoltz
Summary: - Miranda character (mean she is not mine) Amazing what ideas come to your mind when you don't have a computer for a week. I messaged the creator and she said she was okay with me doing this. Hopefully she likes this. Please comment, whether good or bad, comments keep my motivation to write. Btw, I'm not a big TMNT fan, just did this for fun.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Chapter song: Army of Me - Bjork

* * *

"…and that was P!nk's newest single here on The Big Picture, giving you the Big Picture on music. Coming up, an old radio favorite by Bjork. I know! She actually had songs that we'd play on here!" The radio spouted in the apartment.

Miranda wasn't really paying attention, she left it on to give the impression to anyone around that she was up and about, but she also used it to hide her interactions with her friends as well as her double life. Fact of the matter was, behind her façade of a boring social worker by day, she was a crime fighter by night. Sounds clichéd, yes, but honestly, who would suspect her? By day, she was just 'Miss Mejia,' the uninterested, quiet but focused social worker who worked hard to make the lives of less-fortunate families better. She had some friends, sure, but only a few of them actually knew about her double life, everyone else just thought of her as just a boring girl with a boring life to go home to her apartment that she never let anyone in. Some of her employees had their rumors; she paid little attention to them.

If they had known her other side, they wouldn't even have tongues to spread rumors.

By night, she was Miranda, an Ex-Foot Clan soldier, recruited when she was a child and taken away from her family to be turned into a killing tool for Shredder until she was 15 when she fled and returned to the world she was denied growing up in. But she couldn't dare let her family see her, how could they possibly see what their daughter had become? She couldn't let them suffer that, so she ran away to Manhattan, there, she lived in a Care Center for Orphaned Girls until she was old enough to be on her own. She tried to find work, she managed to find work in a bar with an owner who was lenient towards her age and allowed her to work in a bar where she was able to build up her social confidence and reenter society.

But she felt she wasn't contributing to those who needed just as much help from poverty and job loss than ninjas. Thankfully, one of her foster sisters from the Care Center she grew up in was able to help her get a job for the Manhattan Office for Family and Children. She was happier for it. It felt right for her to contribute and help people without having to shed blood for it. It was the one bit of normality she got in her life to feeling like a human being instead of a monster.

But at night, she felt free. Work felt constrictive, she had so many instances she wanted to break someone's arm out of anger, but she couldn't. Nighttime was when she could slip out of her chains and feel free to fight back without having to break this boring character she was playing in real life. She removed her glasses and let her hair down as she applied a bit of face paint to her face to hide any recognizable features. She walked out of her bathroom, adjusting her belt around her waist, her katana knocking against her leg. She looked in a mirror to check if any of her main features that people could recognize her were hidden as she threw her jacket on, her mid-drift revealing a new naval piercing she recently acquired above one she acquired long ago.

She was good to go.

Miranda grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows, turned down her lights, and opened the window, looking down on the street below her and breathing in the New York air. Granted, it wasn't anything fresh, but it vitalized her, energized her, pushed all the right buttons. She walked out onto the ledge of the window as she closed the window behind her. She closed her eyes and raised her arms above her head as she leapt off and took a swan dive off the building to the street below. But before hitting the ground, she grabbed the light post and quickly used her body motion to swing herself back up into the air as she grabbed the window closest to the roof of the opposite building and she quickly climbed up to the roof. Once she made it to the top, she broke out into a sprint, fueled by her adrenaline after a dangerous stunt like that, she ran and jumped from building to building, Occasionally, she would employ some impressive parkour to leap from one building to the next, keeping a fluent motion. Sometimes she would just run towards a wall and use it to leap off of to grab the ledge to the next rooftop, or literally run across a wall and leap off it to head to the next building, grab the edge of a fence and flip over it to land on a lower rooftop below and roll onto the ground to lessen the impact, all the things most people would call "suicide" or "crazy," she felt invigorated to run like this.

She was on her way to meet her other friends, the ones that were part of her night life. Although she denied believing in them at her day job, she indeed knew the group the tabloids referred to as "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," she was their friend and they were hers. They were the ones who managed to help her feel that she could use her battle-hardened skills she had learned over the years to help people. But not all of them were that trusting of her. Their master, Hamato Yoshi, alias Splinter, was still wary of Miranda whenever she entered the Turtle's lair. Could she blame him? She was trained by Oroku Saki, the same man who had betrayed and tried to murder Hamato decades ago. As Hamato went into hiding, Oroku regained control of the Foot Clan and dubbed himself Shredder.

Miranda was Shredder's favorite student and he trained her personally.

Although she had proven her good-natured intentions time and time again, Splinter's distrust for her kept him distant from her, so Miranda had learned it was best to avoid trying to argue with him and just let Splinter be by himself as he spent most of his time meditating whenever she was around to ignore her.

It was just going to be another night of fighting off Foot Clan ninjas to prevent them from taking more children, go back to the sewers with them and take in the sights of the city. But she was in mid-jump over an alleyway when a shriek down int eh streets below disrupted her course. She was originally aiming for the building ledge so she could grab ahold of it, shift her body weight to swing her body onto the roof and keep running, but the distraction from below made her lose her direction as she found herself falling again. Thinking fast, she grabbed the clothes lines that hung from side to side as she used it to swing herself over to the fire escape, landing hard on the edge. She bit the bullet and held onto the railing, realizing had these clothe lines not been here, she would have plummeted 10 stories from the rooftop. She looked out to the streets as she saw a lone woman backed into a corner by these street punks. They must not have been more than 13 years-old, it was a dis-heartening sight for Miranda, considering earlier in the day, she had met with a poor young child who had been moved into foster care after the child's father was sent to prison for committing grand theft auto and two counts of homicide, leaving the mother to drink her sorrows away. It broke Miranda's heart to hear this young child blame herself for all her troubles in her biological family.

She couldn't let it happen to another family.

Miranda leapt from her spot to the wall opposite of her and wall jumped the remaining 3 stories until she landed on the ground with a gentle thud, the hoodlums didn't even notice as she walked out of the alleyway and into the street where she whistled to grab their attention.

"Ya'know boys, it's usually customary t' greet a girl with flowers 'nstead of pocket knives." Miranda called out, their attention immediately shifted from this poor woman to her, some of these teens ogled at her midriff.

"Damn girl, don't it get cold?" One of the hoodlums said.

"Cause if' dat's th' case, we could warm ya up REAL good…" the older one said, clearly trying to make his voice sound deeper and more intimidating.

"That's what this jacket's for boys." Miranda retorted as she laid a hand on the edge of her sword while the hoodlums slowly surrounded her. They all snickered to one another immaturely, the closest one tried to come in for a feel, without warning, Miranda's blade suddenly appeared underneath his nose, forcing him to back off in shock. The other Hoodlums began speaking to one another in shock at her speed.

"Woah!"

"Did'ja see that?!"

"The fuck jus' happened?"

"When did she pull that thing out?!"

"Now let's not get nosy kids. Jus' make it easy on yourselves an' go home." Miranda said to break through their muttering. The oldest one stood strong and held up his knife.

"We will fuck you up so bad!" He rushed towards her.

"I don't do requests." Miranda quipped. She could have easily cut his head off right here and now, but she made the decision well before she even jumped down from the fire escape these kids weren't worth the bloodshed. She quickly turned the blade in her hand as she skillfully dodged his pathetic attack and she placed her back up against his before he realized she had dodged. When he turned around, she whacked the flat of her katana up against his face, causing him to recoil as he dropped his knife and cupped his face.

"Fuck!" he yelled out as the other hoodlums just stared with their jaws wide open from her speed. She smirked as she rested the katana behind her head as she mockingly looked at her nails.

"Ain't too late to say yer sorry, ya'know." Miranda said mockingly.

"Kick her ass!" the oldest hoodlum yelled out, his voice clearly cracking, as the other punks rushed at her all at once.

"Dumb move." Miranda whispered to herself as she skillfully dodged each of their pathetic attacks, keeping her katana over her shoulder and behind her head, giving a relaxed and bored expression to taunt the hoodlums. Two of the actually had the brains to come up from behind, but Miranda just leapt over their heads, her feet delivering a solid heel to their chins as she landed on her feet behind them, her elbows knocking the back of their heads as they fell forward. But the two hoodlums rushed at angrily, Miranda finally decided to let her katana dot he talking as with one swift slash, she knocked the knives out of their hands and the extended her arms out as they ran right into her arms and landed back on the asphalt.

Two other punks grabbed poles from the trash and ran towards her with them, this time, she held up her katana to deflect their attacks as the oldest hoodlum rushed at her from behind. Effortlessly, Miranda deflected her attacked in front of her as she swiftly used her katana to slap the hoodlum rushing from behind her in the face again, only to quickly return her focus to the punks in front of her. She continued to parry their pathetic attacks, backing up as she noticed another punk trying to sneak up from behind her, she timed one of the attacks perfectly as dodged an attack that instead whacked the hoodlum from behind her as he fell over rubbing his head. As for the punk who had accidentally hit his cohort, Miranda quickly grabbed his arm and forced him to drop the pipe as she delivered a quick kick to her other attack in the stomach.

"Ya ain't left-handed are ya?" She asked this scared delinquent.

"N-No."

"Good." She twisted his wrist as his screams drowned out the cracking of bone in his arm before she delivered a sound kick that made him land on his back, babying his broken hand in pain as Miranda delivered, yet another, katana slap to the oldest hoodlum trying to sneak up from behind her again, this time, not even looking back at him. The three remaining hoodlums regrouped for one last attempt to surround. Miranda looked around as she saw them keeping their distance, but trying to keep her distracted, she smirked, "they're catching on," she thought to herself. She held up her blade as the youngest one rushed at her, Miranda was ready to give him a firm slap but he quickly stopped in place as the one with the pipe ran towards her from behind, but Miranda quickly held the blade behind her and blocked the pipe.

"Hm, clever." Miranda said softly, she swept her leg as she caused the hoodlum to land on the asphalt, the other hoodlum was rushing towards her, Miranda quickly used her leg to kick the pipe up to her free hand as she quickly turned and threw the pipe at his legs, causing him to trip and fall on the asphalt. Miranda then looked back at the one hoodlum who had stopped in place as he stared at her frightened, a wet spot in his pants clearly enough to tell her.

"Ya ought ta run along home now…" Miranda said, the hoodlum didn't need anymore convincing as he ran down the street, the other hoodlum laying not he ground groaned as they slowly began to pick themselves up and leave, all except for the oldest one, she was still rubbing his face. Miranda walked over to this punk. "An' then there was one…"

"Yo-you bitch…" his voice cracked, he was clearly crying. Miranda rolled her eyes as she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt as she quickly turned him around and began to soundly spank him with the flat of her katana blade.

"If I" slap* "catch you" slap* "or yer pals" slap* "trying to steal" slap* "from people again" slap* "I will personally" slap* "find where you live" slap* "and cut" slap* "your dicks off" slap* "and feed 'em to the dogs!" She turned him around, his scared and pained face looking at her, "Got it?!"

"Wh-who are you?!" he cried out.

"Yer worst nightmare…" Miranda growled as she gave another slap to his rear end and forced him on his way to join his other retreating hoodlum pals. Miranda gave herself a nod for being able to resolve this without shedding any blood, apart from the bloody noses that is and the broken hand she gave, but those could heal.

"Th-thank you for saving me…" the woman finally spoke out, Miranda looked back at her, her wardrobe suggested she may be a hooker, but Miranda recognized the insignia on her shoulder was for an escort service, the coat suggested she may have just been going home after work. She was probably in her 30's, the hair was blonde, obviously dyed, the makeup was a little too much for her taste, but Miranda was here to be a savior, not a critic.

"Don't mention it. I was just in th' neighborhood." Miranda nodded, sheathed her katana and turned to leave when the woman spoke again.

"Wait…I must reward you for saving me…"

"That won' be necessary ma'am." Miranda spoke, trying to leave and continue on her way.

"Oh but it is…I could have handed those punks myself, but what you did was amazing…" the woman replied, then a familiar sound came to Miranda's ears, the sound of a sword exiting it's sheath, within a split second, Miranda quickly pulled out her katana and managed to block a surprise attack from this woman Miranda had just saved.

"Huh, guess ya really could have handled yerself." Miranda quipped, without warning, the woman began an onslaught attack against Miranda. Miranda was surprised, this woman wasn't an average undercover Foot Clan ninja, this woman was intense. Sloppy though, but still, fast and precise. Miranda herself was struggling to try and keep this mysterious attacker from getting past her defense. Miranda tried to duck down and sweep the leg, but this woman used her own foot force Miranda to fall to the ground, Miranda managed to roll away as the woman jabbed her sword into the asphalt where Miranda had fallen. Miranda quickly got back on her feet, but the woman came back, just as dangerous as Miranda had to keep moving to avoid getting cut. Eventually, the woman did manage to get through Miranda's skillful defense as she landed a deep cut above Miranda's hip, just missing the stomach area, Miranda recoiled back, falling on her knees as she placed a hand where she was cut. More than pain, Miranda felt shock to find someone that could take her on and actually land a cut on her while leaving none on her opponent. Miranda was good, but only when her enemy would give her an opening, this woman wasn't giving Miranda that opportunity.

Before this stranger could finish off Miranda, in leapt a large figure that deflected her attack and kicked the woman back, from the figure, Miranda could already tell who it was.

"This lady giving you problems tonight Miranda?" he said as Miranda managed to stand back up.

"I could have handled her Leo." Miranda replied holding her katana blade up, she was just joking of course, she could use the extra hands against a superior fighter like this one, Leonardo wouldn't exactly be her first choice for a Ninja Turtle to back her up, she would have gone with Raphael or Michelangelo, but pickers can't be choosers as they say. The woman just grimaced as she swung her sword towards Miranda and Leonardo. She was fast, but she couldn't handle the onslaught of Leonardo's twin katana blade attack and Miranda's fighting prowess, now, the tables had been turned. Leonardo managed to time his attack just right when the woman's focus was on Miranda as he managed to uses his blades to get her to fall to her knees, a distraction which Miranda wasted no time to disarm her opponent, by literally disarming her hand with the blade in it. The painful shriek filled the air as blood gushed out on the asphalt.

"That's a little extreme don't you think Miranda?" Leonardo commented, clearly exhausted from the fight this strange woman had put up.

"Well, ya know what they say Leo…" Miranda replied through her exhaustion "If yer right hand causes you t' stumble, cut it off and throw it away…"

"When did anybody ever say that?" Leo said exasperated to hear something so brutal.

"I dunno, I just read it somewhere…" Miranda said as she walked up to her attacker and she grabbed the edge of her outfit, "all right missy, who sent you? The Foot Clan? Krang?" The blonde attacker just stared at Miranda with disgust and complete distain. "Talk damn you, or my katana will help pry open yer mouth for ya!" The woman just spat at Miranda.

"Wu Tang forever!" she shouted aloud before her body began to convulse and shake uncontrollably. Miranda let her go as the woman continued to convulse until her eyes rolled back and she became still.

"What the hell?" Miranda said under her breath, Leo got on his knees and looked this woman over.

"She's not dead…I can still feel a pulse…it's almost like her brain just collapsed on itself…even if she could talk, I doubt she would have anything insightful to tell you." Leonardo said. He stood up and sheathed his katana blades before looking back at Miranda.

"I doubt there's much insight when yer last words were 'wutang forever.' What's a wutang anyway?" Miranda questioned.

"I know of a mountain range in mid-China that bears that name. Stories tell Zhang Sanfeng originated T'ai Chi there."

"Ya think this woman could've learned T'ai chi there?"

"I doubt it. Her moves were sloppy, it seemed closer to Shaolin style fighting. Like she was trying to use your attacks against yourself, but at the same time, like she really wanted to kill you. Shaolin isn't about trying to directly attack your foe, it's about using deflecting attacks to go after your weak points and bring you down."

"Heh, you're starting t' sound like Splinter now, Leo." Miranda teased, Leo just frowned.

"At any rate, I think we should cancel our stake-out plans tonight."

"Like hell you will." Miranda said, wiping the blood off her katana blade before putting it back in it's sheath. "We prepared this stake-out for two weeks, I'm not gonna let a little fight in the street with a vegetable ruin that."

"And you call that?" Leonardo pointed to the wound on Miranda's hip, blood trickling to her waistline.

"It's nothin'. Never better." Miranda responded defensively, staring at Leonardo with a stern "I'm fine" look. Leonardo looked back with an equally stern look before he finally shook his head, she knew Leo meant well and was just looking out for her, but they had planned this stake-out intensely and she didn't want to call it quits because she had a cut on her hip. She could cover the wound of course,

"Well, I still think some first aid would be best for that. The last thing I need is for you to pass out from blood loss in the middle of a fight. I don't want to be the one who has to carry you out."

"And I thought you enjoyed plain' the hero Leo. Saving the day and rescuin' damsels in distress." Miranda laughed as Leo made his way to the alleyway he opposite of the one Miranda came from.

"As if, you're no damsel." Leonardo replied jokingly as he ran into the alleyway, Miranda began to follow before she stopped in her tracks.

Something felt wrong.

Almost like…someone was watching her…

* * *

From nearly 3 miles away, someone was watching. A man with a shaved head watched everything through a pair of binoculars. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number, putting a blue tooth in his ear as the phone rang before someone picked up.

"Yeah, it's me. Someone took the bait, but they didn't look like Foot Clan…" he listened in with his caller. "I don't know, she was fast, but she didn't stand a chance against Cherry…no, someone came in and helped, Cherry failed…I don't know, I couldn't get a good look at his face…no, they haven't seen me yet…I can take her out from here, she wouldn't even see or hear it coming."

"No, Wesley. Your mission is to follow her and watch her every move." Wesley's mysterious caller responded on the phone.

"Understood sir." Wesley responded. "Her back-up, this Foot ninja I mean, he seemed to be wearing heavy armor."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, call me crazy, but it looked like a giant turtle shell." Wesley's caller went silent for a moment.

"…A turtle shell?"

"The night sky may have been playing tricks on me."

"Or perhaps not…" the caller said to himself.

"Excuse me?" Wesley questioned.

"Nothing. I have to go, The Masters, are calling me."

"Wu Tang Forever!" Wesley called out energetically.

"Yes, yes, Wu tang forever." his caller replied unenthusiastically before hanging up. Once he did, Wesley leapt from the roof and continued to shadow Miranda.

* * *

In an office near Times Square, Charles Hughes, president for Color Hughes Advertising, was responding to a phone call to his new clients. Charles was just as you'd picture for a late 30-something man as successful as he was, dark blonde hair combed perfectly, suit was from Men's Warehouse, Rolex watch, you name it, he had it all.

"Sorry for the wait,' masters,' I had another call to take care of." Charles spoke to the video conference speaker.

"See to it that it never happens again." A voice on the speaker replied, "what is your status on our premiere?"

"It's all going accordingly. Your televised message will be shown on all the televisions across the city on Thursday as planned and my people are having the newspapers insert your recruitment ads." Charles replied, fixing himself a glass of scotch.

"Excellent. My followers are tagging the streets with our sign as we speak. Once we've made our presence known, we will strike against our enemies." the voice replied. "Remember this well Charles, for soon, the whole world will have it burned into their memories…no force on earth can stop The Wutang Clan." Charles took a drink from his glass, letting the alcohol burn his throat.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter Song: Don't Worry, We'll Be Watching You - Gotye

* * *

"You actually slapped his face and he kept coming back for more?!" A 21-year old woman with dark red hair with a blue dye streak going down one side and a rather business casual outfit with a knee-high skirt said to Miranda, trying to hold back laughter.

"Oh yeah, he might as well could have said "Thank you ma'am, may I have another?" Miranda replied, a wide smile on her face as she collected printed papers from the printer. The woman standing-next to her nearly fell over, unable to contain her laughter.

"Oh man, I wish I was there to see it sis!" she said through her laughter.

"There to see what Miss Bows?" A low voice asked behind them, both women jumped as they looked back to see Herbert Franklin, their boss, he was a large man, most of his size was his his barrel chest with large arms, but lately, some of his size seemed to be coming from his stomach. He in his mid-50's, even though his head was starting to bald, his hair color kept a jet-black hue to it. Despite his imposing stature, he was actually a gentle sweetheart, which was probably why he had received many awards for his work with children and helping them to find homes.

Truth be told, Miranda Mejia and Alison Bows were indebted to him in a way. He donated his own money to build the Care Center for Orphaned Girls in Upper Manhattan, where both Miranda and Alison met and grew up into adults together. Alison had been working as an intern for the Manhattan Offices for Family and Children since she was 17 before she was finally given a job after she turned 18. She still kept in contact with Miranda after she had turned 18 and when Miranda approached her asking if she could help children like Alison did, Alison didn't say no. It took some convincing, but she eventually managed to get Herbert's approval and allowed Miranda to start from the bottom. Within a year, Miranda managed to raise productivity and the company's reputation with the community. She was a model employee; if the building allowed it, a whole row would comprise of Miranda's face for "Employee of the Month."

"What's this I hear about slapping people? That's not like you Miss Mejia." Herbert eventually said to break the silence.

"Er…" Alison awkwardly said, trying to give him an answer.

"W-Well s-sir…" Miranda eventually answered, faking a bout of nervousness, "I-I was invited t' celebrate one of my friend's birthdays, y-ya know, a-and they had a Wii…"

"What's a wii?" Herbert asked?

"I-It's a video game system sir." Alison answered for Miranda."

"Oh... continue." Herbert quickly responded. He sucked at video games, which was why he preferred to avoid discussing it in conversations.

"W-well…they asked m-me t' play Tennis an'…well…" Miranda looked to the side and gripped her arm to make herself look guilty, she deserved an Emmy for this kind of performance.

"You accidentally slapped him in the face?" Herbert finished her sentence as Miranda nodded, "and this is supposed to be funny to you both?"

"Well…it was funny to us because he kept leaning his face towards Miranda to wave the remote…" Alison finished. Herbert wasn't laughing.

"Your sense of humor is getting stranger to me every year, girls…" he looked to Miranda, "You have a phone call waiting for you in your office."

"Why? A-any business calls I get usually come through t' my cell phone…"

"Yes, but this caller called my office and asked for you directly. She's holding on your office phone."

"Oh…I-I'll answer it, sir…" Miranda responded, earning Herbert an approving nod.

"Good, please don't slap anymore people, even if it is an accident. We don't need another controversy, you've helped rebuild our reputation." Herbert said, giving a firm, yet soft pat on her shoulder before turning back to his office. Alison looked back at Miranda and snickered.

"'Please don't slap anymore people,' I thought he was about to go into another speech about the Office history." Miranda gave a gentle chuckle.

"Thankfully he didn't ask me t' make that speech." She joked, but there was truth to Herbert's words, Miranda was the one who gave the office a much needed kick and she was the biggest support that encouraged everyone to put their A-Game into their jobs. A few years before, the Offices took flak when one of their employers was arrested by the police with several children witnesses coming forth accusing him of being a pedophile. Their reputation was ruined until Miranda came along and helped them pick up the pieces. This was why she made sure that nobody could recognize her in the day time than they could at night time. By day, she dressed more conservatively, knee-high skirt, high heel shoes, her hair up with a pair of dorky yet stylish glasses. During the day, she was an actress at work. She passed herself off to her fellow employees that she was a rather shy woman, but connected better with mothers and children. If a male employee talked to her, she would act nervous and force a stutter and try to get by them quickly. She didn't talk much about her past, Alison knew about it since Miranda told her when they grew up together, even to the few people who knew about her nightly activities, she didn't tell them of her past.

It was too personal for them to know.

"You go take that phone call before Herb comes back and talks your ear off, sis." Alison said, giving a quick hug to Miranda before heading back to her office. Miranda collected her papers and made her way to the opposite direction of the office floor, passing by a few cubicles with people giving a friendly hello to Miranda, she responded with a soft hello back and made her way back to her office, before entering, two other employees blocked her office door.

" Annuda' fun night out on th' town, Miss Mejia?" the older red-head replied, Unlike most other employees working, he was the only guy here whose tie was looser around his neck and kept his sleeves rolled up. Because he stuck to the sidelines, he didn't have too worry about his appearance, which would explain his pouffy perm for a haircut.

"Marcus, is this really th' time?" Miranda said.

"We're jus' curious is z'all." the slightly younger yet brunette replied, she, like Marcus, had her sleeves rolled up, with an eyesore stockings and near-worn sneakers clashing with the collared shirt she wore. This was Candice Gates, she and her brother Marcus were office workers, meaning they never exactly went out in the field or talked to children, but sometimes, the big gears required smaller ones to run. They were both raised in Brooklyn, where they ran into Miranda during the night some time ago and they recognized her instantly when she began working at Family and Children. They were serious at their job, but were known to joke around gently with the other employees, especially Miranda, but only when out of earshot of others. Apart from Alison, they were the only ones in this building who knew of Miranda's night life identity.

"Sigh* I slapped a 14 year-old street punk with my katana blade n' spanked him till' he cried, is that what'chya wanted t' hear?" Miranda finally sighed, receiving chuckles from them.

"More'orless. How the boys been?" Marcus asked excitedly.

"Good, I have t' take this phone call. I'll tell ya'll 'bout it after I'm done." Miranda hastily said before closing the door behind her. She sighed. She didn't mind them, they were really good at giving excuses to Herbert to explain her absences from work when she had to respond to an emergency, but it was getting annoying that they would constantly ask about the boys down in the sewers.

Nevertheless, she put it aside as she placed her papers on the side of her desk near a toy dipping bird as she finally sat down, pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and picked up the phone on her desk.

"Miranda Mejia of Manhattan's Offices for Family and Children, what can I do t' help darlin'?" she said into the receiver while sorting the papers already littered on her desk.

"From your accent, I would have said you came from down south, possibly Texas, but the rolling of your R's suggest European origin, am I right?" the voice on the phone said, Miranda found it a very odd thing to say to someone, but she let it go and kept sorting through papers.

"My father was from Texas, but a large section of my family has roots t' Slovakia, d'ya need family help or did ya call just to insult my accent?"

"No, I wanted to ask about your night life." the voice replied.

"And why should my personal life be of any importance to'ya?"

"Because I want to know if you don't have any plans to fight off any more hoodlums." Miranda dropped the paper in her hand as her eyes widened in shock. She quickly looked out the windows to see if anyone was spying on her.

"How- who are you?" Miranda whispered into the phone.

"Let's just say someone who has some interesting information to discuss with you." the voice responded to her. Miranda tried to keep her cool, but it was difficult considering someone was actually calling her on her company line, for all she knew, anyone could be listening in.

"An' why would I wanna talk with you?" she whispered back aggressively.

"I'm certain you remember your run-in with an escort services gal with a sword the night before to explain the pain in your side." the voice responded, Miranda gently placed her hand over the bandaged wound she received the night before hiding under her business jacket.

"Who th' hell are you?" Miranda growled into the phone.

"55 East 52nd Street. The rooftop, 11:30 tonight. I'll tell you all you need to know." The mystery caller said before hanging up. After a few seconds of hearing the dial tone, Miranda dropped the phone, took off her glasses and laid her hands on the temples of her head, breathing deeply from this. She thought her disguise in the real world was perfect, but someone had breached her security.

* * *

Charles stood out on the roof of his building, looking over the railing below at the streets below. There weren't too many cars this time of night and it nice and quiet. Charles ran his hand over his slick hair as the coat tails of his coat flew softly in the wind.

"If you were considering pushing me off the roof to silence me, I have a man 3 miles away who could kill you where you stand and you wouldn't even hear the shot coming." Charles said before he turned around to see Miranda, out of her work uniform and in her warrior's suit and jacket, warrior's face paint and all.

"I have'a right t' be concerned when social workers call me 'bout men calling them 'bout things I've done." Miranda said, trying to sound tougher than she did back in the office.

"You know, if you're trying to have an alter ego, you could at least make an effort to hide your Texan twang. It wouldn't take an expert to piece together the similar accents between two people…" Charles then reached into his pocket, Miranda placed a hand on the handle of her katana as Charles pulled out a fancy cigarette case and removed one from the case to place between his lips. He reached the case out to Miranda, "...or one person…cigarette?" Miranda was wary to take one, but it wasn't like she could turn down a smoke. She took her hand off her katana blade and took one of the cigarettes format eh case and placed in between her lips. Charles placed the case back in his pocket and pulled out a fancy Permanent match and ignited the metallic match and held it up to Miranda to light hers. She inhaled the tobacco, the flavor running down her throat. Charles then lit his own cigarette before putting the metal match back in it's case and returning it to his pocket. Miranda took the cigarette from her mouth and held it between her index and middle finger and blew smoke out her mouth as it floated up to the sky.

"So, you found me out…you gonna try n' blackmail me?" Miranda finally asked.

"If I intended to ruin your charitable company's reputation, I wouldn't have bothered to call you, I would already have the New York Post print this file my intel has collected on you-" Charles said as he pulled out a manilla folder from his coat and held it up, before he could say another word, Miranda tried to swipe the folder before Charles quickly pulled it back, "...which I am willing to give back to you if you'll listen to what I have to say…" he inhaled his cigarette, letting the smoke blow out his nostrils as he and Miranda stated each other off. Miranda could just kill him right here and take the folder, but she would have to deal with a possible assassin that she had no idea where he was. It's clear she had one option.

"Start singin' your song…" she said grudgingly.

"Good…step into my office, it's getting cold up here." Charles flicked his cigarette over the edge as he walked over to a door and opened it with a key card. "Ladies first." Miranda didn't budge, but she took flicked her cigarette over the edge.

"You first." Miranda said, her eyes still on the folder. Charles nodded at her caution as he entered in first as Miranda followed, closing the door behind her and began walking down a flight of stairs. Right now, she was in a closed location, this guy's assassin couldn't possibly see them now, she could still kill him-

"Still thinking about killing me to get this file? My man won't lay off until I give the word. Try to leave without my okay and you're dead." Charles said also like he just remembered it at the end of a sentence, damn, he thought ahead for this.

They continued to walk on until they reached a door he opened with his key card, entering into a large sterile office through a secret door in the wall. Miranda looked around at this office, bland light green walls, a large window overlook of the city skyline, a large desk as big as a pool table, several framed certificates and awards for business management was all that told Miranda about this man personally, but the office was so sterile, even a Dilbert strip wouldn't bring any joy in this room. Charles removed his coat and placed it on a coat rack, revealing a well-pressed dark suit underneath, before he turned and held the folder up to Miranda.

"There you are, as I promised to-" Charles began to say before Miranda swiped it out of his hand.

"Thank ya kindly, now I'll be takin' my leave." Miranda said cooly as she turned around and made her way to the doors leaving his office.

"You aren't even the least bit curious as to why I went through this effort to get your attention?" Charles called over to her in a nonchalant tone as he walked over to his desk, Miranda stopped in her tracks. "My intel put together that file exclusively; eclectic history to say the least." Miranda slowly opened the folder and found copies of her birth certificate, family pictures, even newspaper clippings when she had gone missing at the age of six. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise, it had everything. Japanese Police reports about her activities, even newspaper clippings of her victims, the plane ticket from Japan to New York when she was 15, the legal papers that registered her at the Care Center for Orphaned Girls, her job application form for when she worked at Bua and even her old small apartment registration. The folder even contained photographs of her fights and interactions with the Ninja Turtles as well as pictures of her working with children. This file had her entire life and somehow, this guy managed to get it all. She slowly turned around to look at him as he opened up a fake bookshelf to pull out a mini bar.

"Ho- wh- who are you?" she asked in sheer disbelief.

"My name is Charles Hughes, President and Founder of Color Hughes Advertising. I have the best intel a man of my position can get. That is how I have the file that tells me everything about who you are." Charles said, pouring himself a glass of bourbon before turning around to sit in his large chair. Miranda, without a moment of thinking, dropped the file and ran over to the other side of the room, she skillfully leapt onto the desk, dropped to one knee on the desk with her other foot on the edge of his desk, pulling her katana out of it's sheath and held the blade to his neck, fury burned in her eyes as Charles looked up at her, unshaken at her violent display.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't collect yer fuckin' head right now…" Miranda growled, her teeth gritting as her hand gripped the handle of her katana blade tightly, ready to make his head roll. His expression didn't even change.

"Because we're currently standing over 100 pounds of explosives." Charles said in his usual nonchalance as Miranda noticed his other hand rested on the arm chair of his seat, a small covering had been lifted as his finger rested softly on a red button. "Even if you manage to cut my head off, the human body responds through muscle twitches, one such twitch will go to this finger over this button and send you sky high. Even if you tried to escape out the window, the blast would be enough to slam you into the next building and break your bones or you'd fall 40 stories to the pavement or perhaps staying in here and letting the explosive heat kill you would be preferable." Miranda stared at him in silence.

"Why would you willingly kill yerself to kill an assassin?" she said softly, but darkly.

"I built this company from the ground up. I would rather blow myself up than see anyone take it from me. So go ahead, I'm not afraid to die, are you?" Charles took a sip from his drink calmly as Miranda stared at this man. He was nuts, brilliant and well-organized, but nuts. She slowly retracted the blade from his neck as she slowly placed her katana back into it's sheath before she slowly climbed off his desk across from him. Once she did that, his hand eased off the red button before he closed the hidden flap it hid under.

"All right…I'll bite, why did ya go through all this trouble t' get my attention?" Miranda said. Charles reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out another manilla folder as he slid it over to her on the desk. She caught it as she looked at the front over that showed a symbol of what looked like a yellow bird or butterfly, it was hard to tell.

"These are my newest clients…they call themselves, 'The Wutang Clan.'" Miranda looked back up at him.

"Wutang Clan?" she questioned.

"Yes, they come from the Far East of China, they want to come here to America to begin a new following of loyal soldiers for their cause." Charles replied, finishing his drink. "Thirsty?"

"Yeah…Scotch on th' rocks. Small one." Miranda said. She wasn't the drinking age, but she had drank before and didn't care about the drinking age, but she wasn't one to drink in excess. She opened up the file and found Chinese police reports of village massacres, in each picture, the same bird symbol was seen on a wall or on a body.

"The Chinese Police began to crack down on their activities, forcing them to flee here, where the Chinese jurisdiction won't reach them. They also acquired American passports, they're literally trying to start a clean slate over here…just to keep doing what they've been doing over there…" Charles said as he walked back to his desk, handing Miranda her drink as she downed the whole thing. "There were nearly 30 Clan Leaders back in China, nine escaped and are now living here and I am to advertise their presence to the city."

"Why didn't ya say no t' such dangerous men?" Miranda said looking at him,

"It's difficult to say no when you're in a video conference as a bunch of men break in and threaten to kill your staff facility on the other end." Charles replied as he took a sip of his drink.

"You don't care about yer own life an' yet it's th' lives of yer employees that ya actually care about?"

"Something like that." He reached over and pulled out several photos as she shuffled through them, and turned the around for Miranda to see, "these are my nine clients." He placed two photos on the table and pushed them over to her. The two pictures showed very muscular men, large in size with a regular human standing next to them for size comparison. "The one on the right goes under the alias 'Raekwon,' the other, 'Universal God.'"

"Well, too bad they're murderers, they'd make good models fer' a Mr. Universe competition." Miranda lightly joked. Big guys weren't anything she couldn't handle, big guys were always more brawn than brain anyhow. Charles selected two more pictures as he placed them in front of her, these two had light armor, both pictures showed the men holding their hands up in the picture, the one on the left, his head was shaven, on his left hand, the Chinese letter for Q was tattooed on. The man on the right, had hair, but a long scar going down his right eye. On his right hand, the Chinese letter for A was shown.

"Both names are unknown, the Chinese reports couldn't find a lot about these two, the closest my intel came to finding names were rough translations. On the left, 'Inspector Deck," on the right, 'The Method Man." They prefer to stay in the back, but they appear to be the judges for the actions of the Clan and how to punish it's members." Miranda looked up at Charles before looking back at the photos, they didn't look too tough, these guys were obviously the brains to counter the brawn.

"Next, the Killer Brothers." Charles pushed two more photos over to Miranda, these two were clearly twins, in stature and in face, the major difference was the one on the left, a facial tattoo resembled a Chinese skull and the other, red tattoos on his neck going down his body and his arms. Their clothing also differed, the skull-faced one wore a black garb, typical for ninjas, with a white sash wrapped around his waist, the other's was red, with pointed shoulders and a dip in the front to show off more tattoos that showed death. "These two are very dangerous according to the police reports intel collected. Last year alone, they managed to kill the same amount of people who died to build the Great Wall of China."

"Are th' tattoos meant t' compensate fer' somethin'?" Miranda tried to joke, but honestly, these photos combined with the many, many, many police reports and pictures of death from their hands was making it difficult to be light-hearted.

"Perhaps. The one with the skull face is alias 'Ghostface Killer,' his brother on the right, 'Master Killer,' a deadly brother team-up, if you plan to go up against them, I'd recommend back-up." Charles then pulled two more photos and pushed them out in front. "now we reach the top of the chain of command. From the police reports collected, these two have had numerous counts of sexual violence in China." Miranda looked them over, the one on the left wore a robber, but his face showed him winking to the camera, Miranda could see a long pointed beard as well as old Ming dynasty armor, the one of the right, was truly disgusting. The man was old, yet gave this disgusting "come hither" she'd seen many times when she had worked at Bua, but somehow, this guy made it look hideous. Not helping was the worn down brown teeth in his smile and unkempt hair. His clothing was nothing to brag about, perhaps it was so he could remove it easily- Miranda shuddered at the thought of this man getting intimate with anyone.

"I don't even know their names an' I already feel cold clammy hands on me…" Miranda said without thinking in disgust.

"Their history in China is more despicable. The one on the left is known by two names in his circle, 'The Genius' inside his Clan, to the Chinese police, his name seemed to be translated out to 'Master Gizza'." Miranda looked at Charles in disgust.

"That's not with'a J is it?"

"My translators insisted to me it was a G, but the way it sounds, yes, I would be disgusted as well. He's the spiritual leader of the Wutang Clan, which means he is the lead speech-maker to their followers, now this other, ahem* 'gentleman,' finding a name was very, very difficult. Police reports and newspapers continue to change the name, but his many rape victims who were interviewed after their encounter with him had only one name for him when they were asked who he was…'an Old Dirty Bastard'…last year alone, he alone was responsible for raping 257 women as well as molesting nearly 1,000 children, all girls." Charles couldn't finish his sentence, Miranda was thankful for that. Her hand clenched into a fist in disgust and rage for his monster, the name was appropriate; this man was an old dirty bastard.

She made a note to self: kill him first.

"Well, that just leaves the head of the Wutang Clan. I wish I could tell you more about him, but unlike all the others, he's almost a mystery. All my intel could find was a name." Charles laid the final photo out in front of Miranda, she saw a man in a robe, the hood covered most of his face, she could barely see any of his face, but out of the shadow of the hood, she saw a long grey and black beard. The robe seemed ceremonial and large as it covered his hands.

"So…this guy is th' leader then?" Miranda questioned. Charles nodded.

"I've spoken with this man myself over the phone, he claims to have been the creator of the Wutang Clan and he built it from the ground up with his half-brother, 'Master Gizza.' Intel said he goes by the alias 'Master Rizza.' He's the head of the Clan, the true decider of what the Clan will and won't do. By tomorrow, once their recorded message is shown across television screens all over New York is shown, they will make their move." Miranda picked up the picture and her hand and studied the picture of 'Master Rizza' closely before she looked back at Charles.

"What- what is their plan?"

"They're going to drive The Foot Clan out of New York and take their place. Once they've done that, the rest of the United States will fall afterwords." Charles said in his usual nonchalance. How this man could say any of this without seeming like he didn't care, was fucking amazing to Miranda.

"Then why did ya bring me here an' tell me all this?" Miranda asked defensively.

"Same reason I have explosives underneath my office or an assassin to keep an eye on me from a safe distance: I like to have a contingency plan." Charles replied, finishing his drink before setting it on the desk.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter song: Television Rules the Nation & Prime Time of your Life - Daft Punk

* * *

"A contingency plan? Is that all you are to him?" Raphael exclaimed in disbelief, Miranda ran her fingers through her hair to move a few strands out of her face as she burned the intel file she took from Charles' office, all except for a few photos of her and the boys as well as a photo of her family she thought she had lost years ago.

"Better than looking at me as jus' a floozy. He knew I was dangerous." Miranda said as she continued to burn old files of her actions during her years under Shredder, she preferred to not remember these years fondly.

"I would have used a better choice of vocabulary if he knew THAT much about you." Rapheal grumbled.

"Still impressive he managed to get all that dirt on you Miranda." Donatello called out while sitting at his computer, six screens facing him as three of them on his right were scanning through archives of information, on his left, one of the screens was doing a GPS search of the Manhattan, the other below it looked at the stocks coming straight from the New York stock exchange, the one below that one, solitaire.

"Donnie, shut the fuck up." Raphael said, looking back at his brother.

"Can you guys keep it down? I'm trying to watch the Food Network's special on gourmet pizza." Michelangelo called up to them from one corner of the sewers.

"We're trying to do work up here Mikey, just turn up the volume." Raph called back to Michelangelo before looking back to Miranda and a photo she placed to the side to not burn, "I remember this, we took out a drug ring that night, I could have sworn we were all alone when we fought in that alleyway. How the hell did they get a picture of us?"

"I dunno, Raph, but if this guy could afford a skilled assassin t' keep a gun on me and fire anytime he saw fit, his money is goin' where his mouth is." Miranda said not even looking up from the newspaper clippings and photographs she was burning or saving, she almost burned the "missing child" report but she felt obliged to read it when she had the time later on.

"You could have called us, you could have had back-up in case anything went wrong." Leonardo said, exiting through a sewer tunnel to join Miranda and Raph.

"An' risk your safeties? Splinter would have my blood if I did that." Miranda said finishing the file as she threw the folder into the trash can in the middle of the table where she had her fire burning. The rest of the pictures she had, the ones she held some personal connection to, she kept for herself, the rest, she pushed over to Raph so he and the boys could keep them.

"But Master Splinter doesn't aim to kill people Miranda, it's not in his nature." Donnie spoke out from his monitors.

"Shut the fuck up, Donnie." Raph called out again without even looking at Donatello, Miranda held back a chuckle; typical brother behavior.

"Donnie, how's that search goin?" Miranda called over to Donatello as she walked over to his chair and his monitors.

"Well, I have the guy and, I don't have him." Donnie said as his center monitor pulled up a photograph of the upper body of Charles Hughs as a a short bio appeared on the three monitors on Donatello's right. "This guy doesn't seem to have a legitimate birth certificate, in fact, back in '07, this was brought to trail to get him to prove his true identity." The central computer monitor showed a photograph of Charles leaving a court house with lawyers and the press around him, even in the photo, Miranda could see his nonchalance about any of this, it was almost like the guy was a robot and nothing surprised or shocked him. "The case was eventually settled out of court for $17 million."

"Geez, it's like this guy's really hiding something that he doesn't want anyone else to know about…" Leonardo commented staring up at the computer screens, standing next to Miranda on her right.

"An' he's done a good job at doin' it." Miranda replied.

"He looks like a sleazeball with the way he combs his hair like that. I'd sooner shave it all off than have my hair look like that." Raphael commented, walking up next to Miranda on her left.

"But Raph, we don't have hair." Donatello said.

"Again, Donnie, shut the fuck up." Raph just said flatly.

"Still trying to watch TV!" Michelangelo called out from the other side of the area, they ignored him.

"Now why you gotta be mean to Donnie like that?" Leo spoke firmly to Raph.

"What? We're just playing around and he knows it, ain't that right Donnie?" Raph joking said giving a playful jab to Donnie's shoulder.

"We were playing around?" Donatello replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"heh huh, shut the fuck up Donnie." Raphael quickly added to his laugh.

"Donnie, th' bio he does have, can you cross-reference with American families?" Miranda broke through the argument to get the boys back to the matter on hand.

"I think so, what exactly would I be looking for?" Donnie asked.

"Try runaways, a search on gifted or exceptional children in th' mid-United States area." Miranda replied as Donnie's three fingers got to work.

"Why Mid-US specifically?" Leonardo questioned.

"When I met him on th' roof, he felt th' need t' point out my Slovak-Texan accent, when he spoke t' me in his office, I couldn't help but notice a bit of a twang in his voice slipping through a few times. I was guessin' maybe Wisconsin 'r Minnesota." Miranda replied to Leo, "I've met a few families from there an' noticed this jerk-off's twang slipped through a few times, like he was tryin' t' hide somethin'."

"Okay, I pulled up a few police files of children running away in the middle United States area, most of the missing children returned home after a few weeks, I found one that was never closed, yet it was said to 'never be on record.'" Donatello said, the monitors pulling up files and paper copies to show on the screens.

"Then how the hell are you finding it Donnie?" Raphael said in a huff.

"When in doubt, follow the paper trail Raph." Donatello replied as another monitor showed up some more information, "Now here's something to grab your interest. That runaway child report disappeared from Minnesota a week after the September 11 attacks."

"Son of'a bitch…" Miranda swore under her breath.

"He used everyone's panic from the attacks to remove his own missing child report so no one could trace his back history and no one was the wiser for it. For a sleazeball, he's pretty crafty." Raphael said, pretty much cementing the obvious.

"Still trying to watch Food Network's special on gourmet pizza!" Michelangelo yelled out again, of course, they ignored him again.

"That's all theoretical Raph, we can't say for sure. Maybe it's him, maybe it's not, we can't just jump to conclusions." Leonardo replied to Raphael.

"Can ya find anything about th' missing kid Donnie?" Miranda said over to Donatello, he nodded and began typing intuit he computer as a picture of a frail kid, freckles, unkempt blonde hair and a worn Ghostbusters T-Shirt.

"Name is Harold Lundegaard, born in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1974. He was 13 when he ran away from home, had two brothers and one sister, it also says he was an avid pursuer of chess." Donatello read off as Miranda looked at this kid, trying to piece him together with the mystery businessman she had met last night.

"Chess huh?" Miranda put a finger to her chin and thought, Chess is a sport that involves a lot of careful planning and strategy; Charles put a ton of careful thinking to get her to meet him, so could the two possibly-

"Hey! What gives! Go back to the pizza!" Michelangelo yelled out in anger when the television signal was taken over as static appeared.

"Pipe down Mikey, adults are trying to work here." Raphael called out without even looking back at Michelangelo. Just then, the television static disappeared as the symbol of a yellow bird appeared on the TV.

"Uh, guys? I think you might want to come look at this, this yellow bird appeared on the TV." Michelangelo said unsure what was going on. Hearing Mikey describe a yellow bird pulled Miranda out of her thought process as she quickly turned and looked over to the TV Mikey was sitting at.

"Mikey, turn it up! Boys, hush up!" Miranda called out as she quickly made her way over to the TV with the boys following. The symbol held there for a bit before the symbol disappeared and there stood a man in ceremonial robes, he held his hands together, his index fingers resting against each other above the knuckles, while his pinkie fingers rested against each other underneath the knuckles. Even though the robe was a different color and as he still could not see his face, she already knew- "Rizza…"

"My children, a new age is upon us. A new age of traditionalism conflicting with modernization and you are caught in the middle of it." the robed stranger on the Television screen said.

"I am?" Michelangelo asked the TV innocently.

"Shh!" Miranda shushed to continue to listen.

"As of now, there is one traditionalist East gang fighting for the soul of New York City. Their methods are as weak as their soldiers and their fighting techniques. But we will build a new order upon their foundation. Why should you tolerate them? They rob you, they kill you and they destroy the values you hold firm to…we offer an alternative…" Master Rizza spoke in a charismatic yet soft tone as he waved one of his hands to the side to show a captured Foot ninja, tied and covered with a bag on his head, "we offer to destroy evil not by our hands, but by your own hands…in a beehive colony, the workers mobilize to turn any intruder away from the sweet nectar they work to produce. But us nine cannot ward off evil alone, we require a legion of dedicated men and women to help us. Spread the word, come to me, become a Killer Bee, we shall eliminate your fears and make you into what your fears dread." With that, his hand closest to the captured Foot Ninja rested upon the ninja as the sickening sound of bone breaking and a death rattle was all Miranda and the Boys needed to indicate the poor Foot Ninja was dead as Master Rizza pushed the body to the side, winning the chuckles of his other companions for this murder. Master Rizza turned back to the camera, "we are the Wutang Clan and salvation is within your reach, or, just sit and let these delinquents grow like a cancer. We offer the solution and you are the remedy…" With that, the television screen switched over to the Yellow Wutang Bird again before eventually going back to Michelangelo's Gourmet Pizza special.

"Yay! My show came back on!" Michelangelo enthusiastically said as the others backed up with a worried look in their eyes.

"There guys mean business." Leonardo said.

"How the hell did your sleazeball friend find these creeps?" Raphael spoke to Miranda.

"He ain't my friend and from what he told me, they came t' him with a sword up against his co-workers." Miranda said, in disbelief that the murder of a former Foot Ninja was actually shown on television in front of everyone.

"I couldn't get a link on the source of the broadcast, but monitoring social media websites, everyone in New York saw that…" Donatello said, some visible shock in his tone to those events.

"Miranda…you wouldn't happen to have a business card or some way to get in contact from that Hughes guy would you?" Leonardo said to Miranda.

"Yeah…yeah I took'a card from his office…" Miranda said, "I'll head topside an' call him…" she turned and made her way to the exit to get a better signal for her cell phone, still in disbelief that murder was shown on television, the image of young children seeing that haunting her.

"Give the Wutang Clan some credit Raph, they really got some heads turning with that." Donatello tried to joke to lighten the mood.

"Shut the fuck up Donnie…" Raph responded with a hint of hostility in his tone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Chapter Song: The Thieving Magpie Overture - Gioachino Rossini

* * *

The night air was warm, yet the temperatures read 50 degrees. A lone pigeon who had been flying about the city all day scavenging on scraps of food touched down on a rooftop to rest it's wings. It barely got a five minutes of rest before five figures leapt towards the roof, scaring it off as it flew away. The figures that let from the roof were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and their Ex-Foot Clan friend, Miranda. They all made skillful leaps and bounds across the rooftops, though Miranda's leaps were more parkour based than the Turtles' leaps and flips, nevertheless, she was keeping up to their pace as they all made an elaborate leap across a street to the next building to keep in motion. Eventually, they all stopped at the ledge of a building looking over a lone warehouse with a rusty fence around it.

"Typical, an abandoned warehouse, why not just put out a sign that says 'Evil Things Goin' On Here, Do Not Disturb.'" Raphael said sarcastically.

"Hughes said th' Wutang filmed their televised message here an' tha' they also use it fer' fencing stolen goods and weapons t' distribute to their 'Killer Bees' 'round th' city." Miranda said looking over the quiet warehouse. Her entire day was rather hectic. At work, the Wutang's televised murder was all the talk of the town, but what surprised Miranda the most was how many people thought it was a fake and everyone in the video were actors. Herbert himself complained about the murder, making a "violence on television is effecting the kids" speech which made all his employees roll their eyes to hear this speech. Miranda had a client that day where she was to meet with an urban family of three boys and one mother, but the woman had to cancel her plans as she had told Miranda that her boys had gone missing that morning. Miranda had her suspicions, but she concluded they had seen the Wutang Message on TV and ran away from home to join them.

For a group of guys claiming their methods differed from the Foot Clan, the use of small children in their dirty work clearly didn't stop them from being hypocrites.

"Oh well, guess we should go down and say hi." Raphael said before he leapt down from the roof, with the others following behind.

They entered the warehouse and found old crates, some broken-in windows and some old graffiti, not much here from a first glance.

"Spread out, but keep your eyes open, there's no telling what's in here." Leonardo warned as they all walked into the warehouse cautiously, their weapons out and and ready should any ninjas be seen. Miranda walked slowly with Raphael as they checked around dark corners and crates, finding nothing but a few rats scattered about. The thought of Hughes lying to Miranda came to her mind, a theory she pondered on considering she wasn't hearing anything or finding anything that suggested anyone was here. Eventually, Miranda the boys had spent a half hour silently looking over the entire warehouse but found nothing but a few rats and leftover shipping materials, but nothing to suggest anyone had been here, they all grouped together to the center of the warehouse with light shining on them.

"Well, that sure was a waste of time, there's nothin' here." Raphael complained.

"I found a few rats here and there, so this place isn't exactly lifeless." Donatello replied.

"Shut the fuck up Donnie." Raphael quipped in frustration.

"Raph, why do you gotta be mean to Donnie like that? It's not his fault we can't find anyone here." Leonardo said to Raphael.

"Because we just wasted all this time lookin' around in this empty crap house when we could have just gone out interrogating street punks for their location." Raphael complained to Leonardo.

"Look, it is disappointing, but you shouldn't take it out on Donnie." Leonardo said, his tone rising.

"And what else should I blame? The fuckin' wall? Oh sure!" Raphael sarcastically said pulling out his sai blade, "Fuck you wall! You wasted my time! The Wutang ain't here!" He threw the sai at the wall in frustration when, to the surprise of all the turtles and Miranda, the wall fell back as a large group of people working away behind it suddenly looked up at them.

Everyone froze.

On the wall, hell, on all their arms, whether it be tattoos or arm bands, the Wutang symbol was displayed with pride. There was this awkward silence that settled in the room, you could have heard a pin drop with this really awkward moment for both them

"…I guess they are here Raph…they were just hiding behind a fake wall…" Donatello pointed out the obvious, Raphael just lowered his head and shook it.

"Donnie…please…just shut the fuck up…"

"Get them!" the one Wutang worker in the hidden room yelled out as all the workers rushed out, swords and other weapons in hand, Miranda and the other Turtles readied themselves as they began to fight with the Wutang workers.

Miranda's experience with the previous assassin had proven to Miranda that it was inadvisable to fight against them alone, to her luck, these Wutang workers were no more experienced at fighting than drunken blue-collar dock fishermen. They had some skill to hold a weapon, but not enough to force Miranda on her knees. Miranda backed up to Donatello as they coordinated their attacks together, Donatello would skillfully manage to wave his bo staff behind him to knock the workers behind him in their faces as Miranda would skillfully lean back and leave cuts on their hands or faces, which distracted them long enough for Donnie to sweep their legs and knock them on their asses. Raphael, who was one weapon short of a sai, ran up to the Wutang worker that had grabbed his sai as Raphael grabbed his attacker's hand and took the sai out of his hand.

"I'll be takin' that back, thank you." Raphael quipped before he delivered a head-butt to his attacker before spinning the sai in his hands and going to town with more adversaries.

Michelangelo was backed up into a corner, using his nunchucks to deflect attacks from the workers before Leonardo arrived and skillfully sliced their weapons from their hilts, making them all pause to stare confused at their broken weapons before Michelangelo used this distraction to sweep their legs, forcing them to fall on their asses again.

"Now stay down!" Michelangelo yelled out as though they were dogs before moving on to continue to smack more workers.

At one point, the Wutang Workers knocked Donatello's bo staff out of his hand as it flew over towards Miranda's direction. Miranda skillfully threw her blade over to Donatello to at least arm himself as she grabbed the bo staff and skillfully began to spin it around and about her body as she skillfully slapped, tripped, and jabbed many of the Wutang. Soon enough, she found herself surrounded by a group of knuckleheads as she skillfully knocked them all on their asses, one guy was dumb enough to run up to her, Miranda smacked his head as she spun around, her back to his as she spun the bo staff around his neck and flipped him over her body, slamming him on the ground, a groan indicating she hadn't snapped his neck. Two knuckleheads rushing her from in front and behind, Miranda skillfully swept the leg of the one behind her as he pinned one end of the bo staff onto his back as she flipped over, her feet delivering a kick to the other's jaw as she landed back on her feet after performing a flip like that, quickly raising the staff to her head to deflect a sword about to slash her face.

"Miranda! Switch!" Donatello called out he managed to use the handle of Miranda's katana to smack a Wutang worker's nose as Miranda skillfully threw the sword that had been pinned in the bo staff across the room as she rammed the other end in between the worker's legs before throwing it across to Donatello's hand as Donatello threw it across the room, Miranda noticed a Wutang worker about to stab her from behind, she ducked down as the katana she was about to catch her hand instead rammed into the worker's chest. Miranda put her hands on the handle and pulled it out to slice an attacker's bo staff in half before delivering a roundhouse kick to another Wutang knucklehead that was running towards her

Raphael and Leonardo used their own shells to act as shields from most of the attacks as they dispensed with their adversaries, Raphael used mostly his the handles of his sai to grab arms while Leonardo would deliver non-lethal slashes to their arms and legs. They could deliver killing blows if they wanted to, Miranda clearly wasn't holding back, but their intense training under Splinter, they were choosing to refrain from using deadly force. They saw Michelangelo being pushed to the ground as Leonardo grabbed Raphael and tossed him over to the Wutang workers about to jab Michelangelo's soft spots, knocking those knuckleheads over like bowling ball pins, before Raphael used his legs and another Wutang worker trying to get up to force that worker on his back with Raphael back on his feet as he went over and pulled Michelangelo up.

"These guys aren't that tough." Michelangelo said in between his panting from the fighting.

"Yeah, maybe The Wutang are just a bunch of pus-" Raphael found a boot to his head cutting off his sentence as soon, he and Michelangelo found themselves squared off with a few guys wearing hood-like masks with the Wutang symbol on their faces and chests, their arms revealed through torn sleeves as the one who delivered a firm kick to Raphael's face wielded a pair of butterfly swords as he spun them in his hands to show off his skill to the Turtles. Raphael just grinned in delight.

"I knew those guys were just a warm-up, looks like the real fun just arrived…" Raphael said, leaning his neck from side to side, small cracks were heard before he returned his head to it's upright position. Miranda was just done dispensing another worker when she turned and saw the new guys entering the warehouse.

"Well, looks like th' calvary arrived…" she said to herself as she ran up to Leonardo, "Leo, remember back with that woman in the streets the other night? She couldn't handle both of us then."

"Yeah, I remember Miranda. Though it looks like they brought their own backup…" Leonardo said, spinning the katana blade in his hand.

"Intruders…we are the Killer Bees, soldiers of the Wutang Clan…we offer you a choice…drop your weapons and join us…or die where you stand…" The biggest Wutang solider called out. Miranda looked over what she and the boys were up against.

She counted 10 Killer Bees; at least three of them had tonfas in their hands, two of them had Monk Spades, she saw the only female Killer Bee had hook swords in her hands, there was, of course, the tall thin soldier behind her was wielding dual butterfly swords who had given a kick to Raphael's face, on the far right, a Killer Bee spun a chain whip in his hand, the remaining Killer Bees held yard-long blades in their hands. They all looked strong and like they all knew how to use these weapons. Perhaps their offer to just drop their weapons wasn't that unreasonable.

"I got a better idea, why don't you all get your five dollar asses out of here before I make change?" Raphael quipped, so much for diplomacy, looks like it was on now.

"Kiler Bees…bring the motherfucking ruckus!" The largest Killer Bee called out, prompting them to go forth and attack our heroes.

Miranda leapt over Leonardo, going straight for the female Killer Bee with the hook swords, the woman immediately blocked Miranda's attack, leaving her open to Leonardo's swords to come from behind Miranda as she caught them in the handles of her blade, Miranda used this distraction to deliver a firm kick to the woman's throat before the sharp end of a monk's spade nearly clipped her face as she soon found herself facing off against a Killer Bee, this felt like she was back in the streets with the woman who wouldn't give Miranda an opening to attack, all Miranda could do was dodge and deflect attacks from this skilled fighter who clearly wasn't as sloppy as the last assassin she fought. She hoped Leonardo could back her up, but in the corner of her eye, she saw that Leo was having his own difficulties against the Wutang soldiers. Michelangelo was struggling against the one with the chain whip and the tonfa, Donatello was doing all he could to keep his distance from the men with the huge katana blades, Raphael found himself head to head with the Killer Bee with the butterfly swords as well as constantly trying to hold off the other Wutang soldier with his monk spade, Leonardo was still trying to contend with the woman with her hook swords and the other soldiers with tonfas batting away at his shell whenever Leonardo wasn't deflecting them with his katanas; they were kicking their asses.

They were deadly fast and it was the Turtles' refusal to kill that was keeping them from trying to take the fatal shot that could end this battle fast. The workers Miranda was fighting before were mostly just blue-collar workers that had no training with weapons, these guys did, so, by her logic, they were worthy to spray her blood.

In a split second, Miranda quickly flipped the katana blade to her other hand just as the crescent side of the monks spade was being thrust towards her, Miranda grabbed the Monks spade as she spun her self around and rammed her katana blade into the back of the neck of the Killer Bee she faced off against. A Killer Bee with a tonfa rushed towards her, Miranda quickly spun herself around, throwing the corpse at the Wutang soldier, pulling her katana blade out of his neck as well as the monk spade in her other hand, it was heavier than a bo staff, but she could manage. She quickly switched the katana blade from holding it backhanded to front-handed style as she used the monk Spade in combination with her katana to fight off with the Killer Bee, spinning the spade in her hand to deflect his. In a quick moment, she threw both weapons in the air to switch hands as her katana blade focused on the Wutang soldier while Miranda used the crescent side of the spade to grab the hook that the female Killer Bee was about to use to surprise Leonardo at his neck before she delivered a swift kick to the kneecap of the tonfa wielding soldier in front of her as she pulled on the monk spade to pull the hook sword girl over to Miranda as the hook girl managed to block a killing blow from Miranda and even managed to pull the blade out of Miranda's hand and threw it across the room, coincidentally hitting the back of a Killer Bee that was about to decapitate Donatello. Miranda quickly grabbed the wounded tonfa fighter next to her as the hook sword girl delivered a killing blow to him instead of Miranda, using this dead body as a shield, Miranda quickly grabbed the other arm of this girl as she rammed the spade end through the girl's chest.

At this point, the other Wutang solider with the huge katana blade shifted his focus away from Donatello to go after Miranda, allowing Donatello to finally get a moment to breathe before he shifted his focus to the Killer Bee with the chain whip, grabbing the end of the chain whip that was about to hit Michelangelo, causing the Killer Bee to look behind ins surprise.

"Lights out bozo!" Donatello called out before pulling down on the chain, forcing the Wutang soldier to lose his balance as Donatello flipped his bo staff and rammed the back of the Killer Bee's head so hard he fell down to the ground, stunned. Donatello unwound the chain before going over to help Michelangelo back up. "You all right brother?"

"Y-yeah…yeah I'm fine…" Michelangelo managed to say through his heavy panting, he was losing energy from this fight, Donatello spotted a few welts made from the chain whip on Mikey's green skin as well as a few lines on his turtle shell. "I think I prefer the guys from before…they were easier…"

"Yeah…me too Mikey…" Donatello said to his brother comfortingly, but their moment to relax was ruined as a Killer bee with tonfa ran up to them, catching them off guard as Michelangelo found himself pushed over into a row of barrels, Michelangelo crashed through them as this brown liquid spilled out and landed on his face, some going down his mouth. Donatello managed to regain his composure as he looked back to his brother, "Mikey! You all right?!" Michelangelo was being soaked in this liquid that had long been forgotten, he sat up, feeling a little woozy.

"I…I think so…I feel weird though…" Michelangelo struggled to get up, this wooziness was really strong, he must have gotten hit harder than he thought.

While Michelangelo was trying to overcome this new sensation, Miranda found herself facing off against a Killer Bee with a katana blade almost as long as a child, he sliced the monk spade in half as he managed to keep Miranda on her toes to use both sides of the sliced monks spade to fight off her attacker, as she fought hard, she looked again at the boys, Leonardo could now focus on a Wutang soldier with tonfa, Raphael was still going head to head with the Killer Bee with the butterfly, neither showing any signs of giving up, Leonardo was now going up against a Killer Bee that dropped his tonfa and was now using the abandoned hook swords to battle with Donatello, Leonardo somehow found himself going hand to hand against the Killer Bee with the tonfa.

Thankfully, the odds were now in their favor instead of against them.

Miranda suddenly found her hand in pain as she realized her opponent had slashed her left hand, blood stating to surface, She dropped the weapons in her hand as she rolled underneath the Killer Bee, coming up from behind as she grabbed his legs and stood up with his legs in her hands, forcing him to fall on his hands, Miranda smirked as she delivered a firm kick to his chest, making him fall on his back. Miranda quickly net over and picked up the katana blade as she turned back to the Wutang soldier with the huge katana blade as the both of them began to clash swords intensely.

Donatello began to struggle with the Killer Bee as he found himself back on the floor, the Killer Bee was about to finish Donatello off when Michelangelo threw his nunchucks at him, he was looking to good, he was swaying left and right as he held his hands up.

"Why don ya go- hic* pick one someone your own size?…" Michelangelo slurred. The Killer Bee just smirked underneath his hood mask, he dropped the hook blades as he walked over to Michelangelo, ready to just push this disoriented turtle over, to his shock, Michelangelo managed to grabs his hand and slap him in the face, this surprised the Killer Bee.

"Impossible…." He said to himself through his hood mask, he rushed towards Michelangelo again, delivering a barrage of swift fists towards Michelangelo, not only did Michelangelo managed to deflect each other, but he suddenly became a fast array of fists and elbows as he knocked the Killer Bee on his ass, looking up at the disoriented turtle who was still swaying left and right, holding his right hand out while his left hand remained close to his chest, giving an occasional hiccup. Donatello stared in shock.

"Mikey? What did you do?"

"I never would have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes…" The Killer Bee muttered before getting back on his feet, "a reptile is skilled at Drunken Fist?"

"Hic* Dr-drunk waht?" Michelangelo slurred as he swayed in place, The Killer Bee picked up Donatello's bo Staff and rushed at Michelangelo, Michelangelo only moved his body around skillfully, though disoriented, as he found himself knocking the end of Donatello's staff away from him and occasionally switching his footing around, confusing the Killer Bee greatly until Michelangelo knocked the bo staff out of the Killer Bee's hand, flying over the warehouse and hitting the back of the Killer Bee attacking Miranda, giving Miranda the opportunity to ram her katana up through the bottom jaw of the Wutang soldier and up the roof of his mouth before she pulled it back out, letting her opponent fall over, she looked over to Michelangelo in surprise to see fight moves she had never seen Michelangelo perform before.

"Mikey?" Miranda questioned in disbelief as Mikey was literally on his knees, spinning, while serving swift punches to this Killer Bee soldier. Her attention quickly turned back to the others as she saw a Wutang Soldier throwing Leonardo down on the ground and was going to deliver a killing blow to Leonardo. Miranda quickly flipped over the two, slashing the Killer Bee's fist off just before he could land it on Leonardo, getting blood sprayed on his face before Leonardo would just use his hand to deliver a nerve stun to the Killer Bee's neck and pushing him over, sitting up in exhaustion as he looked up to Miranda.

"Don't say it…" Leonardo said before Miranda could repeat her "if your right hand causes you to stumble" quote from before. Miranda looked over to Raphael who had his opponent's head in his arm.

"Need a hand over there Raph?" Miranda called out.

"Nngh! Back off! This pretty boy's mine!" Raphael yelled out before squeezing his arm around the Killer Bee's neck hard enough that he finally passed out. Once he stopped moving, Raphael finally let him go, but not before Raphael picked him up and dunked the Wutang soldier into a garbage bin. "Well, that's one way to take out the trash, so who's left?" Miranda pointed to the Killer Bee Michelangelo was dispensing with as Michelangelo deliver a sold blow to the Killer Bee's face and stomach sliding on his knees before the Killer Bee stood there for a moment before falling back.

They were all stunned.

"What the hell was that?" Raphael said in disbelief.

"I-I rightly have no idea…he got knocked over to these barrels and, well, when he stood up, he began fighting like this…" Donatello said, picking up his damaged bo staff as Michelangelo just sat there, a dumb grin on his face, swaying around with an occasional hiccup. Miranda walked over to the barrels and dipped her finger in, she pulled it out and tasted it before spitting it out.

"I'll tell ya what it ain't; it's sour wine. Mikey here is drunk." Miranda said, all the turtles looked at their drunken little friend who still seemed unaware of what had just occurred.

"Well that explain the disorientation, but it doesn't explain where all those fight moves came from…" Leonardo said calmly before helping his brother back on his feet. "Get his nunchucks, we're taking him back home."

"What about this place? We can't let the Wutang operate out of here anymore." Donatello said.

"You both go on ahead…Miranda and I can handle this…" Raphael said, looking over to Miranda, she nodded back in understanding.

"Don't take too long Raph, it's getting close to dawn…" Leonardo said, Raphael nodded as the three turtles left the warehouse, stepping over the bodies left in the fight. Once they left, Raphael went over and picked up his sai as he turned and looked to Miranda.

"You did good back there by the way." Raphael complimented, Miranda just smiled, pushing back a few strands of hair.

"Ain't nothing' to it Raph…ya would have done the same for me…" Miranda said, she wiped the blood off her katana blade before putting it back into her sheath. Raphael noticed her bleeding hand.

"Your hand…it's bleeding…" Raphael said as he stepped closer to Miranda, gently taking her wounded hand in his, she had a slight jolt of pain shoot through her arm as he inspected the wound.

"It- it's nothin' Raph…" Miranda said, Raphael didn't accept that, he reached over and tore one of the Killer Bee's clothing into strips as he softly wrapped her hand in the strips. He was gentle about it, but he managed to tie it tight enough to stop the bleeding, he looked up to Miranda's brown eyes as their eyes made contact for a moment. He tied off the bandage on her hand before giving her hand and wrist a soft pat.

"Good as new…" Raphael said softly, still looking at Miranda's eyes, almost trying to get lost in them. She broke eye contact, an apparent blush on her cheek as she slowly pulled her hand out of his.

"Th-thank you…" Miranda replied softly, stepping back a bit before turning around to look over the bodies. Truth be told, she did have something of a crush for Raphael and recently, it was starting to seem that he may have had the same feeling as well. Did she want to hold him close and never let him go? You have no idea, but the emotional scars she kept from being trained under The Shredder had told her all her life that emotion like love was a weakness your enemy would hone in on and use against you. It was hence why she would just keep most interactions with Raphael strictly professional with some friendly chatter. But lately, Raphael was starting to get close to Miranda, going on missions with her more, hanging out at her apartment more often, they clicked well, they fought well, but something deep down in Miranda's gut told her not to act on these feeling she had, she wanted to put down Raphael gently and tell him she didn't feel the same way, but whenever she would try to, she just couldn't muster the gut to do it.

"So, er- you wanna burn down the warehouse?" Raphael finally said, breaking the awkward moment.

"Wh-what about the ones who aren't dead on the ground?" Miranda questioned looking at all the bodies she had created, but also at the people who were just groaning.

"We'll drag them outside and tie them to a light post so authorities can deal with them. The dead can burn with the building." Raphael said.

"What if their families worry?" Miranda said, looking back to Raphael, he looked like hell, a few knocks and scratches here and there, but they never seemed to bother him.

"I dunno about you Miranda, but I'd rather not know if my brothers were part of a secret gang of ninjas that killed other ninjas…" Raphael replied. Miranda didn't want to argue about this matter of funeral rights and what not, but she figured it would probably be better if these families didn't know about this.

"All right…I'll get the gasoline…" Miranda said, walking off to get some gasoline bottles while Raphael dragged the unconscious or wounded outside, by the time Miranda had dumped gasoline on all the exteriors of the walls, Raphael had finally returned after tying them to a light pole to check on Miranda's progress.

"I already called 911, they'll be on their way here." Raphael said.

"Good, looks like it's time t' light his popsicle stand…." Miranda said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it as she inhaled a puff before flicking the cigarette to the gasoline, instantly igniting it as she and Raphael left the warehouse to be enveloped in the flames.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter Song: Greenbacks - Ray Charles

* * *

"Drunken Boxing? Michelangelo fought these Wutang soldiers with Drunken Boxing?!" Splinter yelled out frustratingly as he held Michelangelo's head underwater with the other three kneeling to their master. They had returned to their lair to find Splinter waiting for them and once he saw Michelangelo was drunk, he demanded answers. They had not seen their master this angry in a long, long time.

"Master, please, don't blame him. He was knocked back into an abandoned barrel of sour wine and he drank some by accident…but-" Donatello tried to explain before Splinter interrupted.

"It is each and every one of your responsibilities to watch each other's shells in battle, and look what your lack of preparation has brought you." Splinter criticized at his students, obviously hinting to their welts, scratches, scars on both their skins and shells. In this moment, he pulled Michelangelo's head out of the water, he coughed and took several deep breaths.

"M-Master, you don know we're not amphibious right?" Michelangelo half-slurred his lines.

"Yes, Michelangelo, but this is the fastest way to overcome the feeling of intoxication." Splinter said sternly yet fatherly to Michelangelo as he dunked Michelangelo's head back under the water again.

"Master Splinter, regardless of Michelangelo's mistake, his fight moves were impressive-" Donatello tried to explain before Splint cut him off.

"No Donatello. Drunken Boxing is not a respectable martial art. It's a martial art for fools, one that ruins all respect from the martial arts community." Splinter pulled Michelangelo's head out of the water, as Michelangelo spit out a stream of water, "you understand me, Michelangelo?"

"Y-yeah…don't get drunk so I can't fight like a fool, yes master. Can I go lie down now?" Michelangelo managed to cough out.

"Do you still have a headache?" Splinter asked calmly.

"Yeah."

"Then no." Splinter said as he dunked Michelangelo's head back underwater again. He then looked up to Miranda who was standing in the back, complete distain in his eyes and tone. "As for you, I would have expected you of all people to be more prepared for an experienced adversary and drag my boys into it."

"Ya ought t' be proud of them fer standin' their ground like they did, besides, I didn' force them t' come along, I offered an' they all accepted." Miranda replied, trying to keep her calm.

"If you feel so inclined to have my boys be meat shields, mercenaries might be more to your liking." Splinter replied, Miranda was appalled to hear that, she wanted to talk back to him, but she decided against it as she turned around and walked away.

"I gotta go. I have t' get ready fer work in the next few hours, an I don' want th' smell of sewers ruinin' my day." Miranda said to try and get back at Splinter, Splinter just frowned. Raphael looked back as Miranda began to leave, he wanted to talk with her for a brief moment before she would head off to work and he wouldn't see her again until later at night. But he couldn't leave unless Splinter dismissed them.

"Tell me boys, who did you fight that caused you such injury?" Splinter finally said to the turtles.

"They called themselves 'Killer Bees,' master." Donatello said.

"Master…I fought hand-to-hand with one of them…they were using Shaolin Shadowboxing techniques…" Leonardo spoke up, Splinter looked at his student.

"Shaolin? Ridiculous, Shaolin is a craft passed down by peaceful monks who only use the techniques to defend themselves.." Splinter said calmly.

"But I recognized the hand-to-hand when I threw his weapons to the side…" Leonardo said, a hint of worry in his tone.

"These must be hired hands who were taught the Shaolin craft from a defector of the temples." Splinter said.

"I came to the assumption they were practitioners of Tai Chi master…"

"And why do you come to this conclusion Leonardo?"

"Because of their name, The Wutang Clan, master." Leonardo spoke, Splinter's eyes raised in surprise.

"That's…not possible…The Wutang Clan was eradicated over 100 generations ago…" Splinter spoke softly.

"It was who they referred to themselves as…we could barely hold our own against their sword style, Master…" Raphael said, really hoping to get out of here and go talk to Miranda, maybe check on her hand if it was still bleeding or something.

"Sword style?….the Wutang sword style still exists?…" Splinter said with a sense of dread in his tone, he immediately pulled Michelangelo's head out of the water as he coughed out the water he had swallowed, "you boys are dismissed…I must meditate on this…" Raphael wanted to hug Splinter for letting them go, but he instead bowed to his Master before getting up and heading down the direction Miranda went, noticing she had left her jacket behind. Donatello helped Michelangelo to bed but Leonardo stayed behind with Splinter.

"Master…this Wutang Sword Style…"Leonardo asked to Splinter as he took his walking stick and began to make his way to his meditation chambers with Leonardo following.

"A dangerous art that is extinct…or so I had hoped…" Splinter said hauntingly.

"Shaolin Shadowboxing and the Wutang Sword Style, master, what does this mean?" Leonardo asked his master. Splinter stopped just before entering his chambers as he turned to face his student.

"It means that if what you say is true…then the Wutang could be dangerous…" Splinter said with dread in his voice.

"Master?" Leonardo said worried.

"Rest yourself, Leonardo…I will meditate on this…" Splinter finally said before he closed the doors behind him for his meditation chamber.

* * *

Miranda was still trying to calm herself from her small fight with Splinter. Why was this guy such a prick to her? What had she done to him? Nothing, he held a grudge against her because of her former master. She was nothing like The Shredder, why did he think she was? She made her way to the sewer ladder and was prepared to climb up when Raphael called out her name behind her.

"Miranda!" She turned and saw him run up to her.

"Raph, I though'-"

"Master Splinter excused us." Raphael said, he looked over Miranda, she was looking a bit thin lately. She had confided in Raphael that she wasn't getting a lot of sleep recently. She didn't say why, but he assumed it was from these nightly prowls he spent with her, she always found ways to make herself look active and awake, it seemed only he could coax her into going to sleep whenever he visited her apartment, but he was certain that once he left her apartment, she would just get up and go back out on the prowl again.

"Well? Somethin' ya wanna tell me Raph?" Miranda spoke, finally breaking his daze.

"Oh, shit, right, Uh, you- er- you forgot your jacket Miranda…" he held it up to her, she gently took it as she hugged it close to her body. This jacket was special to her, Raph knew that well. It used to be her father's, she found it in her parents' old home when she returned to America. She desperately wanted to find her parents, but at the same time, she didn't want to. The fear of what they would think of her, knowing what she had become, haunted her mind.

Perhaps, more than anything, this could account for Miranda's insomnia….

"Thanks Raph…I would've gone ballistic if I thought I lost this…" Miranda said softly.

"Oh, um, anytime Miranda…" Raphael replied, he watched Miranda place her jacket on, trying to push any dirty thoughts out of his head, although restraint was one of his master's many teachings, he was still a male turtle and subjective tot he same yearnings as any human man would yearn for.

"Well, I gotta go, see ya t'night Raph." Miranda finally said as she turned around and began to climb up the ladder, Raphael was about to say something, but his mind caught him, telling him "don't be stupid." So heeled it back and replaced his wording.

"Y-Yeah. See ya…" (he watched her climb up the ladder until the cover closed. "Damn, I should have said something…" Raphael said under his breath, punching the wall next to him in frustration.

He could have told her then and there.

But he just didn't have the guts. He always held firm that out of all the Turtles, he was the gutsiest and more daring. Give him a giant sea cockroach over trying to confess you have a crush on a girl any day of the week, at least he knew he could have the support of his brothers for the cockroach. But he couldn't tell his brothers, cause then they would tell Splinter and he would probably forbid him to speak or see her again.

But it was starting to get harder to avoid thinking about Miranda all the time...

* * *

"Kitchen accident?" Herbert replied to Miranda's answer her injury she acquired last night from her hand, she had replaced the wrapping Raphael used to tie her hand from last night and applied proper medical bandages.

"Yeah, I was c-cuttin' a zucchini fer a salad when my neighbor knocked on my d-door, it's jus' a stupid mistake, boss." Miranda said, in her fake nervousness. Herbert did his usual stare at her, hoping that there would be more to hear from her.

"Sigh* all right, just don't try to cut your hand any more, okay?" Herbert said, giving a warm pat on her shoulder.

"Thanks boss." Miranda said giving a sweet innocent smile as Herbert left her office, once he left, she dropped her smile as she downed a small bottle of 5-Hour Energy. She barely had enough time to sleep once she got home, she immediately had to get cleaned up and head to work. She needed more sleep, she knew that, but lately she had been suffering from this awful nightmare where she tried to run up to her parents and instead found their bodies with their blood on her hands. Every time she tried to sleep, it was the same damn nightmare.

It was difficult to fall asleep from a nightmare like that.

Eventually, her work flow was interrupted when Alison poked her head into Miranda's office and knocked on the door frame.

"Um, hey sis, there's someone here to see you."

"That's strange, I didn' make any appointments this early in th' day." Miranda said.

"Well, he didn't have one, he insisted that he had to see you." Alison replied.

"Then send him away, it's too early." Miranda said flatly before downing the rest of the Five-Hour Energy bottle and chucking it into the garbage can and looking over a few case files.

"Now, now, is that any way to talk to someone who would be in need?" A nonchalant voice called out, even before she looked up, she already knew who it was. Charles Hughes. She gave a look of surprise but also confusion as he entered the room.

"I'm sorry Sir, but Miss Meija can't see anyone this early in the day-" Alison began to speak to Charles before Miranda cut her off.

"No, it's okay Alison, I can see him."

"Are you sure?" Alison said, giving a look that says "I can call security if you'd like."

"Yeah, I remember him now." Miranda replied, also looking back with a "I can handle this" look. Alison nodded as she returned to her desk. Charles stood there in Miranda's office, The blue suit was a change than the one he wore the night before they had met, but even in blue, he clearly showed the title of power. His dark coat wrapped around his arm with his hands in his pockets, his hair was still slicked back as usual, though it looked less greasy than it did later in the day.

"You always shoo away anyone who comes to your office to talk to you when they're not on your schedule?" Charles said in his usual nonchalant tone, but she could sense a bit of snark in that comment, she just frowned.

"I help out people who have family needs, you don't have any." Miranda said flatly, Charles just scratched the side of his nose.

"Point taken, but nonetheless, a man of my position should at least be given better treatment than just being told to shoo, for instance, you haven't even offered me a seat yet." Charles replied.

"I don't see why I should, you're rich enough t' buy any of th companies who makes these chairs." Miranda said sarcastically.

"I do have a sense of ownership and being this is your office and this is your chair, it's only the polite thing to ask permission to sit in it, is it not?" Charles said, giving this sort of blank stare that Miranda could best describe as "stern but uninterested." Miranda just raised her hand to indicate for him to sit down, which he did.

"Now, the last time, we agreed that ya weren't supposed t' call me at work. Miranda said, staring down her possible adversary or ally, she hadn't made that decision yet.

"True, but our agreement was not to call, ahem* 'Miranda' at work, for all intents and purposes, I am simply meeting and communicating with 'Miss Meija' on her grounds." Charles replied, running his hand over his hair to flatten it.

"Well good fer you, but ya don't have kids, so I'd kindly ask you t' leave." Miranda said defensively, Charles didn't budge.

"What if I said I wanted to chat with 'Miranda' and couldn't wait until her 'work hours' were available?"

"Then I would say be patient and then call her during her business hours."

"Then I would say I can't because I am being monitored as we speak." Charles said, leaning his head to the window to scratch his chin, Miranda turned her eyes to look out the window at the buildings near the office building and cars passing by. "They can see, but they can't hear me, they can only hear me when I take phone calls."

"I would say that's quite a predicament you're in Mr. Hughes but I'm not sure I or 'Miranda' could help you with that." Miranda said, looking back at him, he looked back at her.

"Which is when a brilliant tactical idea came to mind on my way to work to keep you current on what I know." Charles said looking back.

"And what would that be?"

"I would take you out for brunch." Miranda's eyes widened in surprise, dropping, once again, a paper in her hand.

"Excuse me?!"

"The Wutang know so little about 'Miss Meija' in the day time, for all they know, you could just be a girl I'm talking business with and taking you out to eat is the most average thing a wealthy philanthropist like myself would do and it would give us the perfect opportunity to discuss all the new goings-on with the Wutang Clan right under their nose." Charles said in a straight manner. Miranda couldn't exactly believe this, usually whenever guys asked her out, she would always decline because of her night life, but this was different since he was directly asking her as if she didn't have a choice.

"No tricks now..." Miranda said finally.

"I'm a businessman first, Miss Meija, think of this more as a business meeting than any ridiculous "date" that you might call it." Charles replied. Miranda thought about this for a moment, what was the harm he could do? He was willing to blow himself up for one, but that could have been a bluff for all she knew, but how many opportunities would you have to go to any high-end restaurant with a guy who could pretty much buy the restaurant with his wealth. Not even her friends would believe that.

"All right…yer on. But what do I tell my boss?" Miranda finally said, standing up to gather her things to put into her purse.

"I'll just tell him you gave me such outstanding advice the day before that just 'opened doors for me' and I wanted to reward you with brunch, on me." Charles said, finally cracking some sort of smile over his own cleverness before he stood from the chair and held out his elbow, a gentlemanly gesture of course to have Miranda wrap her arm around his.

Miranda slumped her purse over her arm and thought to herself, "he's quite a shady bastard. Clever bastard, but still, keep your guard up round him…"

* * *

Brooklyn Fare Park, one of the most respected restaurants in Manhattan. The price to even pick up a menu was $225 dollars each. This was the kind of place you'd have to save up for months before coming here with your date.

Miranda couldn't stand it.

Most of the people here seemed like the snobbish, stuck-up, self-centered money-waving pricks that could afford to go to places like this to show off to everyone their wealth.

Kinda like Tom Cruise only less good-looking.

Thankfully Miranda wasn't paying for this one, under any normal circumstances, she would never be caught dead with a guy who wasn't her type. She kept expecting him to try to make a move like some guys would try to do, like spike your drink or to inappropriately touch her, she'd broken a lot of hands of guys who had tried that crap on her. Charles never did any of that, he was either gay or he really did put his business before people. If the the latter was the case, she hoped to never know his social life if he even had one. The eggs were cooked to perfection, so was the sausage and the fruits were very fresh.

Most of their conversation stuck to Miranda's workplace and the children she worked with, he'd listen to her prattle on and she'd do the same as he prattled on about his business. Eventually, she decided this was getting really dull and decided to break the ice.

"Look, this is all very nice an' all Mr. Hughes, but let's not be forgettin' why you took me here…"

"Of course, I didn't really expect you to take any actual interest in my business, but I would like to add one thing." Charles said calmly as he wiped the corners of his mouth with his napkin before placing it on the table, "early this morning, I received a very angry phone call from my employers telling me someone had cut off their weapon chains…as well as the hands who were shipping them, you wouldn't happen to have had anything to do about this would you?" Charles said looking over to Miranda, she just gave a grin to this.

"Dirty hands shouldn't be held onto Mr. Hughes." Miranda said in a soft yet dark tone.

"I thought so. Either way, you left them fuming mad, they've had to change their tactics and resorted to sending private messages to their affiliates."

"What do'ya mean?"

"Let me try to explain…" Charles pulled out a pen and a business card, he flipped the card on it's blank side and began to write some words down. "You know how acrostics work, correct?"

"Of course."

"The Wutang have resorted to using it to send out messages to their of their followers or their 'Killer Bees' as they call them. This was the last one I hard them use over the phone." Charles pushed the card over to Miranda as she looked at the single word on the card.

"Cream?" Miranda questioned. Charles then took the card as he added words to the letters before pushing the card back to her, this time, it read 'Confiscated Resources, Exchange At Midnight.'

"But some of their 'soldiers' have misread their orders. Remember the arrest made last night on Baker's street?"

"Yeah, it was a bunch'a teens tryin' t' break into a pawn shop."

"The police report said when the kids were asked their motivation for the break-in, they only said 'Cash Rules Everything Around Me.'" Miranda just shook her head and put a hand to her head.

"sigh* dumb kids…I take it The Rizza did nothin' t' help them out once they were apprehended." Miranda said, Charles just shook his head.

"Sometimes, The Rizza's orders can be heard just from words than the letters themselves. For instance, if I said 126th Station Thinks Busy Accountants Need Killing, you would say?" Charles said, Miranda thought for a moment trying to form what he said into a word.

"126th St. Bank?" Miranda said, Charles nodded. "Couldn't th' police also figure this out when they arrest these 'Killer Bees' off th' streets?"

"An excellent question which I received little information about that myself." Charles said, before he could say more, his phone began to ring, "excuse me. hello? Forgive me, I'm in the middle of a business brunch…sigh* yes, I understand…sigh* I'll be in my office in 20 minutes….yeah, yeah, Wutang Forever…" Charles rolled his eyes having to say that last line before hanging up.

"I take it that was yer employers?" Miranda said.

"Regretfully so. I apologize for not being to personally drive you back to your office, but the Rizza gets furious when he's made to wait." Charles said with a hint of regret through his nonchalance. A waiter came by as Charles paid for everything before he turned back to Miranda with a $100 dollar bill, placing it on the table. "That should pay for the cab ride back."

"I flattered, but I don' exactly accept handouts that high-" Miranda began to say before Charles interrupted.

"Oh no, I insist. It would be very rude of me to have you pay for the cab ride back" he pushed the bill closer, Miranda finally noticed what he was trying to indicate as she noticed the bill was lifted off the table slightly.

"Yeah…I understand ya." Miranda said as she gently took the money along with a solid object that was hiding underneath it as she quickly and quietly pocketed it before standing up. "Well Mr. Hughes, thank ya kindly fer the brunch, th' food was excellent."

"But of course, it was the least I could do. Hopefully we can hope to see more of each other in the future." Charles said in his usual tone as he gently took her hand to shake it.

"Ya just might Mr. Hughes…ya just might…" Miranda said with a slight smirk across her mouth. Charles eventually released her hand and left through the doors entering his limousine that drove away. miranda stood at the street side trying to hail a cab as she noticed someone that was sitting on a motorcycle across the street driving away in the same direction the limo had gone.

"He wasn't kiddin' about being monitored…" she thought to herself as a cab finally pulled over and let her in as she sat down in the back

"Where to?" The cab driver asked.

"250 Broadway, Offices for Family and Children." Miranda replied as she reached back into her pocket and pulled out the $100 dollar bill, she smiled as she found along with the cab fare, she had a small USB drive in her possession.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chapter Song: Hate to Feel - Alice in Chains & The Jailers - Voices of Light

* * *

Miranda had a pretty busy week.

Apart from young delinquents coming in bearing Wutang symbols on their arms in her day job, Miranda was pretty busy at night too. The USB drive Charles Hughes had slipped to Miranda back in the restaurant was full of codes words meant to indicate locations and instructions for the Killer Bees. Miranda, along with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, began an active nightly campaign, sabotaging the Wutang Clan's weapon chains or disrupting their robbery plans.

But it seemed no matter what Miranda was doing, it only seemed to strengthen the Wutang's resolve. Before, Miranda would always run across Foot Clan soldiers trying to kidnap children, once the Wutang Clan had made their presence known to New York, the kidnapping rate took a severe drop, before the week was even through, Foot Clan had all but ceased to exist. That didn't sound so bad, but that's only if you didn't see the bodies of Foot Clan ninjas that were always being wheeled into the morgue daily. One night, right after Miranda had burned down a supply chain with the boys, she run down an alleyway and tripped over the bodies of Foot Ninjas, all of them were horribly mutilated. What disturbed Miranda the most was after she had removed their masks, all the Ninjas lying dead in that alleyway were all girls she knew back during her training under The Shredder, the frozen look of horror and shock on all their faces, none of them had stood a chance.

She probably would have lost her cool right there in that alleyway if Raphael hadn't followed her. His shoulder was comforting for her to cry on. She was thankful he was so understanding. If only his master could be as understanding.

Not long after this, Miranda learned the Foot Clan had finally pulled out and went into hiding. They couldn't contend with the power of the Wutang Clan and left, leaving only Miranda and the boys to stand in the way of the Wutang Clan.

Sadly, Splinter didn't exactly agree with this.

"But Master Splinter-" Michelangelo complained.

"No and my decision is final! I trained you to defend yourselves against other members of the Foot Clan, the Wutang Clan are far more dangerous than any adversary you've ever faced, you are not prepared for them." Splinter said sternly. Miranda stood in the background as her friends sat on their knees for their master.

"Master, please listen to reason, we can't let Miranda go out alone to fight them off." Raphael protested to his master, looking back to her for a moment.

"Then she should follow the example of the Foot Clan and pull away. This is not your fight my sons." Splinter lectured, looking up to Miranda, frustration in his eyes, "Nor yours either."

"Excuse me?!" Miranda said, staring down Splinter. He was getting aggressive on her again for her ties to the Foot Clan, she just had to keep her cool.

"If you insist you are no longer Foot Clan, then why should you continue to defend your brothers and sisters of the Foot."

"I don't fight th' Wutang for th' Foot Clan, I do it t' protect New York City an' help keep kids off the streets." Miranda responded.

"Oh, so now you're a champion for the children? Is that your excuse for all the bloodshed you have on your hands?!" Splinter lectured to her, Miranda was starting to lose it as she stood her ground.

"It's a hell of a lot better'n sittin' in th' sewers hidin' while th' Wutang Clan continues to kill Foot Clan ninjas and police officers that get in their way." Miranda responded.

"Miranda please-" Leonardo tried to interrupt to stop this arguing.

"So then this is retribution for you? Do you have any second thoughts about the people you murder?!" Splinter rose his voice.

"All th' goddamn time! I choose whether t' kill someone if they're worthy of it!" Miranda rose her voice as well.

"You're just like Oroku Saki, you mistake revenge and vigilantism for justice!" Splinter argued.

"NEVER COMPARE ME T' THAT MONSTER!" Miranda finally shouted, pulling out her sword, the Turtles all flinched in shock, Raphael and Leonardo were the only ones to pull out their blades ready to defend Splinter. At this quick moment, everyone froze in place, Splinter hadn't even moved at all, but he stared at Miranda with a sort of "You were saying?" look. Miranda looked at Raphael, his eyes were pleading with Miranda not to do this. Miranda sheathed her blade, the other Turtles followed, but Miranda wasn't done.

"You know, I use t' think that Shredder had you wrong…but it looks like he was right, yer nothin' but a cowardly, selfish, senile, old…old…" Miranda struggled for words, "RAT! A common vermin that prefers t' run an' hide than stay an' fight back like a hero!" The turtles had gasped, Splinter was unmoved by her words as Miranda turned around in a huff as she stormed out of the training room Splinter was lecturing his students. They all turned and looked back at Splinter as he looked to the ground for a moment before he turned around and sat not he ground and began to meditate.

"M-Master?" Raphael finally said, he needed to talk to Miranda.

"If any of you try to sneak out, I will be forced to raise my hand to punish you…" he finally said as he crossed his legs to begin meditating. "You are all excused…but all of you will stay in the lair until I say otherwise…" he closed his eyes and began to enter his inner peace, Raphael was the first to leave as he went after Miranda.

Miranda was nearing the ladder heading to a secret garage she parked her motorbike in, she was fuming angry. How dare Splinter accuse her of being anything like Shredder? He had no idea of the horrors she was forced to impose by his cruel training. She did felt really glad to finally talk back to Splinter for being such a prick to her, but she also felt some guilt for saying such a mean thing.

He was just concerned for the safety for his sons, they were his life. But the boys were now Miranda's life as well and she just wished Splinter could see that.

"Miranda!" she heard a voice call back, Raphael ran up to her as she was about to put a hand on the ladder.

"Raph…please, don't." Miranda said.

"Look, Master Splinter can be a little tough and free-minded, but he didn't mean to upset you-" Raphael began to say before Miranda turned to face him.

"How can you defend what he said t' me?! He was calling me a lil' Shredder! Does he have ANY idea how much that…that 'man' has ruined my life?!" Miranda began to shout in anger at Raphael.

"Miranda, he- he just doesn't know you how I do." Raphael said, trying to sound like he was on her side. Miranda just rolled her eyes as she placed a hand and a foot on the ladder before looking back at him.

"Charles wanted t' meet wit' us t' tell us where the Wutang headquarters is bein' held, ya comin' 'r not?" Miranda said in a huff.

"I…I can't, Master Splinter has forbade me to leave the lair…" Raphael said, personally, eh wanted nothing more but a night alone with Miranda to fight alongside her. Miranda rolled her eyes in frustration.

"Wonderful, yer only excuse is that yer grounded while I have'ta go meet Charles t' find th' Wutang Clan's HQ; best excuse any gal could get." Miranda said sarcastically as she began up the ladder. For some reason Raphael couldn't explain, his rising frustration from her insult led him to talk back at her.

"Oh sure, you're one to talk about excuses." This caused Miranda to stop climbing as she looked back at Raphael.

"What's that supposed t' mean?" Miranda responded.

"Oh I dunno, what excuse would a girl need to go off and meet some rich billionaire in the middle of the night when he buys you lunch." Raphael said with a hint of aggression in his tone, Miranda slide down the ladder back to the ground level to face him.

"What th' hell are you implyin'?" Miranda said.

"I don't know if you really want to hear my theories on you and this rich slimeball!" Raphael argued.

"Oh God, you think me an' Charles are-? Oh God, no!" Miranda said in disgust. "Christ, I'd rather kiss a trout from th' market than his disgusting face!"

"Well, for all I know, you would have some experience with that!" Raphael said, anger in his voice was rising.

"And since when do you give a damn about my romantic life?!" Miranda yelled angrily, deep down, she was trying to tell herself to stop and apologize to him, but her mind was so angry, it was like her mouth was running on it's own.

"How should I know?! Maybe I don't give a damn about your sex life or you!"

"Fine! Then I don't give a damn about you or yer goddamn family!" Miranda shouted.

"If you really don't give a damn, then get the fuck out of my goddamn home!" Raphael yelled. Miranda and him stared dagger eyes at each other, both breathing heavily through their noses before she finally turned and climbed up the ladder, and made it to top before she slammed the grate close. The moment she slammed it closed and stormed over to her motorbike, she began to slow down before she came to a complete stop just a foot from her motorbike. A sense of realization pouring through her mind, she slid to her knees and cried into her left hand with her right hand holding onto the wall.

"Oh God…what have I said?" Miranda said. How could she have said any of that to him? What had gone through her mind to say any of that? She felt as though she had blown a hole right through her own chest. Did those things really come from her mouth?

As she weeped above the surface, down below it in the tunnel, Raphael had laid his back against the wall as he slid down to his rump, pulling the mask off his face, rubbing his eyes with his hand.

How could he have said any of those things?

"Raph…you fucking idiot…" he said under his breath. "you loved that girl and you just told her to go fuck herself…" he dropped the mask as he leaned his head down and the hand on his eyes moved to the back of his head, joined with the other other hand, his head reeling from that fight. Both his hands landed on the ground in anger as he gave a loud yell of anger for breaking his own heart, unaware that Miranda was suffering as well above ground.

Miranda wiped her tears as she fixed her jacket before sliding onto her motorbike and putting life into it before she drove off, the air blowing through her hair, but tears still ran down the sides of Miranda's face as she drove down the streets, her heart feeling so hollow and cold from her own doing…

* * *

Miranda climbed the fire escape to the top of a condemned building Mr. Hughes had described in an e-mail to her. Her eyes were red from the crying on the way over, she knew that going in distracted or emotional conflicted was a bad idea, but she needed something to distract her from her fight with Raphael. She reached the top and was surprised to see someone else was there.

"Ah, Miranda, you're late." this stranger said.

"Who are you? Where's Mr. Hughes?" Miranda said.

"He was caught up in a meeting so he sent me. My name is Wesley, I'm Mr. Hughes private bodyguard, I was the one who spied on your meeting a week ago with a sniper rifle aimed at you." Wesley said matter-of-factly.

"Huh, ya got good eyes." Miranda said, slowly walking up to him as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and held them up to her calmly, "don't mind if I do." Miranda said, accepting one and putting it between her lips as she lit it up and deeply inhaled before blowing smoke to the side. "So, how did Mr. Hughes buy you?"

"I was being held in a Chinese prison for nearly 10 years before Mr. Hughes bought my freedom and he employed me to handle his dirty work." Wesley said calmly. Miranda looked at him as she inhaled the cigarette again, considering the night she was having, she needed this cigarette badly.

"Huh…looks like yer boss has a good eye fer talent." Miranda said, she started to feel her lack fo sleep coming over her, she willed herself to stay awake.

"Well, I got good eyes for beautiful women." Wesley said, Miranda rolled her eyes.

"Please, I've had a rough night, I'm in no mood fer flirtin' jus' tell me where I can find The Wutang Clan's headquarters." Miranda said in a low tone as she inhaled the remainder of the cigarette.

"Of course. Their headquarters change all the time, but their main base of operations is someplace called 'The 36 Chambers,' here, this file should tell you all you need to know." Wesley said handing a manilla folder to Miranda, Miranda took it from him.

"Thanks." She turned around and began to flip throughout his rather thin folder, flicking the cigarette to the side, she looked through it to find nothing but a few sheets of paper that said "surprise" on it. "Is this some kind of a joke?"

"No, but you'll probably won't be laughing too soon." Wesley said as Miranda felt the pangs of drowsiness again as she found she couldn't fight it. She dropped the folder and all the dummy papers as she began to feel disoriented. She tried to eke herself standing but she felt as though her body was getting heavier and heavier, she stumbled around for a bit, placing a hand on her head as she groaned.

"Wha- What did you do t' me?" Miranda slurred as she fell to her knees close to the cigarette butt she had flicked to the side as she grabbed it in her fingers and examined it closely despite her vision starting to blur. "son of'a bitch…you drugged me?!"

"You know, smoking is bad for you." Wesley said darkly as Miranda's dizziness began to worsen, her vision blurred as she saw several Killer Bees leaping onto the roof as Wesley walked over to her, he grabbed her hair and held her up to his face. "Fuck Mr. Hughes, Wutang forever." He then landed a solid blow to her face as she fell over on her back and her vision slipped into blackness as the drugs took effect.

* * *

Miranda eventually felt her mind finally waking up as she slowly began to open her eyes, giving a soft groan as her vision slowly returned as she rose her head. She was sitting down, she could tell that much, the blurriness in her vision subsided as she looked at her location. She was inside some small room that was no bigger than a bedroom, though without a bed, the walls had some sort of red painted flocks of birds that seemed to try and fly around the room, in the dead center was a large yellow bird, the symbol of the Wutang Clan. Miranda then looked to her left and saw a man looting through her things, looking at her jacket and her sword.

She tried to get up and get her weapon back but she felt her hands being restricted as she looked back and realized her hands had been handcuffed to the chair, she then realized her feet had also been handcuffed to the chair legs. She tried to do the reasonable thing and lift the chair, but it refused to budge, eventually her escape attempts caught the attention of the man looking over her stuff as he turned his attention to her.

"Ah ha…you're finally awake…" he said, he stepped into the light as Miranda felt horror shoot through her nerves as she immediately recognized this man from the photographs of the Wutang Charles had shown her.

"O-Old Dirty Bastard…" Miranda growled softly as he grinned, showing his disgusting teeth.

"So you have heard of me…good…" The Old Dirty Bastard said, he moved closer to Miranda, his stench was horrid, Miranda could have gagged as he smelled her neck. "Mmm…I love your smell…the smell of virgin flesh…" He moved back as he licked his lips. "I can remedy that…oh yes…" his hand grabbed the sides of her cheeks, Miranda kept trying to force her head away to avoid even looking at him.

"No…NO!" Miranda shouted as he forced his tongue into her mouth. Oh God it was disgusting and slimy. She was ready to barf, but she wasn't going to let handcuffs stop her. She groaned in disgust before she bit down on the intruder's tongue, making him let go of her head as he yelled out in pain.

"NNNNHHH!" The Old Dirty Bastard screamed as he tried to pull his tongue out but Miranda bit down harder, drawing blood, she was trying to take the whole damn thing. He punched her in the stomach which eventually forced her to let go as he backed off and babied his tongue. Miranda just stared dagger eyes at him as she spat out his foul taste and blood from her mouth.

"Do ya EVEN brush yer goddamn teeth at all?" Miranda said, spitting out more of his foul taste.

"ou…ou bet meh pounge?" The Old Dirty Bastard said with his tongue out of his mouth, he looked at her in shock, clearly, nobody had ever tried that whe he forced himself upon them. Anger grew in his eyes as he drew a knife and held it up to her neck, "ah'll peesh ou bish!"

"Osirus!" A voice called from behind as the Old Dirty Bastard stopped, standing in the doorway stood a figure with a long dark robe, the Wutang bird all across his chest arid of the robe, though the wings spread to the sides and the tips reached to the bottom of his robe.

"Mastah Rissa…thee bit mah pongee…" The Old Dirty Bastard said while his injured tongue hung out. Rizza entered the room, followed by three young people, said people looking as though they were barely 14, bearing the Wutang symbol recently tattooed on their chests and quite recently from the look of it. Rizza just waved his hand for the Old Dirty Bastard to leave as he indeed did so, looking back at Miranda with a hateful look before leaving, Miranda stared up at this mystery man. He slowly turned to the table and picked up a clean towel and a bottle of sake as he returned to Miranda, bending down his knees as he looked Miranda in the eye. Miranda looked over this man's features, he wasn't as old as Miranda had expected, a few grey hairs here and there on the sides of his beard which clearly was well-kept, his eyes were light green, but even looking into his eyes, Miranda felt a strong urge to stop fighting and follow this man like he was a god. She bit her own tongue to fight back this urge as she continued to stare with hate at this man as he rose the towel to her mouth, Miranda leaned her head back away from him.

"I know Osirus' mouth was not the best to endure…this will clear his foulness from your mouth…" he said with allure and courtesy, for an asian man, his English was very good, too good. Miranda continued to stare at him, not trusting to put anything in her mouth. He seemed to know this as he took the container and drank from one side of the bottle. "See? It isn't poisoned. It is nothing more than sake." Miranda kept staring at this man but she eventually opened her mouth as Rizza slowly poured the alcohol into her mouth as she swished the burning alcohol in her mouth, her tongue appreciated this taste rather than that disgusting slime of The Old Dirty Bastard's tongue. She leaned her head to the side and spat the liquid out, Rizza took the towel and slowly wiped her mouth, like a grandfather calmly wiping the mouth of a child.

"There…his foulness is gone, yes?" He said softly as he gave something of a smile that felt unnatural to look at.

"If yer gonna kill me, ya better do it now." Miranda said bitterly.

"Kill you, dear child? Goodness no, you are much to valuable to just kill." Rizza said softly, but with power and weight in his words. It felt as though his words were trying to work their way into her head to get her to trust him.

"I get that a'lot an' usually my response t' them is th' same." Miranda said.

"Well, we aren't like the others. We have a more honorable intention to our methods." Rizza said calmly, standing up as he slowly walked back to the table to lay the towel on it.

"Ya call rape an' pillage of an entire country 'honorable?'" Miranda stated, keeping her eyes on Rizza for anything he was trying to grab something.

"This world is full of anger, greed, lies, hatred, and unnatural children who are born with diseases that destroy their abilities to think. The medical world comes up with all these names for these diseases or 'disorders;' 'schizophrenia,' 'autism,' 'down syndrome,' 'OCD,' all these diseases that hinder the mind and destroy order. The position of your country and in ours was to 'help' these people. But do you know what that does? It wastes valuable resources that could be used to provide for the people who are forced to sleep in the dirt and have rain and snow fall on them while the diseased ones live in privilege."

"That's bullshit! Disorders aren't diseases!" Miranda began to say before the Rizza cut her off.

"Then how else would you call the other horrible diseases of mankind? Lust? Greed? Wrath? Are you to tell me they are all disorders that we cannot cure?" Rizza turned back to her as he walked to the other side calmly while talking.

"Ya can't compare mankind's sins t' people with developmental disabilities!" Miranda said angrily, she wished she had the strength to break out of these handcuffs so she could get her hands around Rizza's neck. She had worked with many people who had developmental disorders and while many of them had to be taken away to institutes, leaving their children in foster care, she found more of these developmental people were just fine if they were give proper help from their peers to help them understand right from wrong.

"You don't quite see it do you? These 'disorders' are the punishments God placed upon the world for it's sins. But, that is where my men and the Killer Bees will change that…" he walked back over to Miranda, bent down and put his hands on the sides of her arms as he stared at her with those haunting eyes. "You are the most promising warrior I have ever had the pleasure to hear such tales from the Killer Bees. Join me, with our combined strength, we can take control of the country's financial heart and begin our cleansing. We will reform the world and all of mankind's sins will be eradicated forever." Miranda looked at his face for a good long while before she finally spat at his face.

"I'd rather go t' hell than kill innocent people who can't help that they are th' way they are!" Miranda said darkly and angrily. Rizza sighed as wiped her spit off his face and stood up.

"Then you have chosen your end…" Rizza turned around as the youths began to speak up excitedly.

"Master Rizza! What are you going to do to her?!" One youth said.

"I have a suggestion master! We can tie her to a bedpost, with her ass cheeks spread out and shit, right? And we'll put a hanger on a stove and let it sit there for 30 minutes and then just stick that shit in! Sssss!" The second youth excitedly suggested, making the other two youths laugh while the Rizza stood there, his hands together as he listened to these two ramble to one another.

"Oh wait, wait, I'll fuckin, lay her boobs on a dresser and then I'll ram them with a spiked baseball bat! BLAOW!" the third youth said, behind them stood Master Gizza, he too was laughing at these pathetic suggestions.

"I'll fuckin' pull her tongue out and stab it with a rusty screwdriver!"

"I'll hang her over the side of a building by just her nipples master!"

"I'll fuckin just sew her asshole close and keep feeing her and feeding her and feeding her and-"

"Boys." Rizza finally spoke up to get them to stop as Gizza entered the room to face Rizza.

"What do you want us to do with her, brother?" Gizza said calmly. Rizza looked back at Miranda who continued to stare at him with hatred in her eyes, she wasn't going to change her mind obviously. Rizza said something to Gizza that Miranda couldn't quite hear before he eventually left the room, Gizza just smiled darkly as he walked over to the table and picked up her sword, pulling it out of it's sheath as he walked over to Miranda, inspecting the sword.

"Hmm, this is a fine sword…I'll be proud to claim it as my own…" Gizza said with a grin as the last thing Miranda saw was Gizza use the handle of her own sword to knock her out.

* * *

Eventually, Miranda awoke in darkness, she leaned her head up only to ram her head against something solid, she leaned her head back as she groaned as she tried to put a hand to her head but se found that she was taking her other hand with her. Her wrists felt the familiar cold metal of handcuffs on her wrists, she eventually recovered from the pain as she realized she couldn't see anything, it was pitch black. She tried to move her legs but found she had limited mobility, she couldn't really bend her legs without hitting the low ceiling. She placed her hands on this ceiling and felt wood as she heard a bit of creaking.

"No…they didn't…" Miranda said to herself trying to tell herself this was just a dream, but the pain she was feeling in her head from hitting this ceiling and the smell of earth was confirming the worst, "Oh God...they did..."

Miranda had been buried alive.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Chapter Song: L'Arena - Ennio Morricone

* * *

Miranda screamed and pounded against the wood in the wood for at least 10 minutes, but reason eventually took over as she stopped, telling herself it was no use to call for help. The worst thing that would happen if she tried to struggle all she would do was just waste valuable air that she had in this coffin or worse case scenario, he would have all the dirt on top of her coffin break down and crush the life out of her.

Though in hindsight, it would be a quicker way to die than suffocating.

Miranda pushed these negative thoughts away as she closed her eyes and took a moment to relax and clear her mind of fear. Even though it was dark, she knew her body well.

Despite the handcuffs on her wrists, she slid her hands down her body and felt around the waist, hoping to find her lockpick kit. To her dismay, they took all of that, not even leaving her a weapon to endure suffering quickly, at least they left her pants on.

She didn't lose hope though. She then slowly moved her hands up to her hair as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Come on, come on…" Miranda whispered, her fingers searching carefully, thankfully for her, her fingers hit what she was looking for as she pulled out a bobby pin from her hair. She held onto it tightly as she lowered her hand back to her stomach area as she used her fingers to feel the keyhole of the handcuffs. Being careful but precise, she slid one side of the bobby pin into the keyhole as she slowly moved it around. She kept her eyes closed as it was pointless to bother seeing nothing in the dark coffin, but she formed the image of her surroundings in her mind as her fingers practically created the image of the handcuffs in her mind as she slowly moved the bobby pin around, she had to be careful, if she forced the pin in the lock, it was break.

The sound of the lock snapping back rewarded her patience as she pulled her hand out of the cuff, placing the bobby pin on her stomach to rub her wrist for a moment before she got to work on the other cuff.

Within 15 minutes of waking up, Miranda had freed her hands of the metal handcuffs, leaving them free to feel around this dark wooden cage some more. She tried to think of what she could use to possibly communicate with anyone that she was alive down here, but her phone was gone and this wasn't one of those coffins where there was a string attacked to a bell above where you could ring it to indicate you were still alive. She laid her hands to her side and head back in defeat.

She was done for.

"Pathetic weakling!" a voice yelled in her mind. She recognized this voice immediately as her former captor and master, Oroku Saki or better known as The Shredder. Immediately, her mind flashed back to her days training under the Shredder after he had kidnapped her when she was 6 years old.

At that day, she was seven and she was failing to please her master during training spar matches as she refused to beat a downed opponent per his instructions.

"Only a year since you came here and you show no more promise than when you arrived then!" The Shredder roared, young Miranda just shrunk in place as The Shredder yelled at her.

"I-I'm tryin' master…" Miranda said softly.

"Inexcusable. Show me your hands." The Shredder ordered.

"Wha- what?" Miranda questioned.

"SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!" The Shredder Commanded, Miranda slowly and nervously raised her hands up to The Shredder as he grabbed them both in his one hand. "Bah! They are weak!"

"I-I'm only 7 Master-" Miranda began to say before The Shredder lifted her up by her hands, hurting her wrists, as he held her up to him.

"Excuses, excuses! I tire of excuses. I own your hands now and I want my hands strong." Shredder dropped Miranda on the hard ground, she felt like crying, but she forced them back to The Shredder wouldn't berate her further. "Come! We will strengthen your hands!" Miranda nodded as she followed The Shredder to an area away from the students as they approached an area with blocks of wood being held in place by stones

"Since your hands belong to me now…I want them strong." The Shredder said as he removed the gauntlet on his hand, curling it into a fist and landed a punch through the block of wood, Miranda's eyes widened as he pulled his hand out and turned to her.

"I- that's impossible! I can't punch through solid wood!" Miranda protested.

"It's the wood that should fear your hand- not the other way around." The Shredder said as he held the tip of his hand up to her face. "What if your enemy is three inches in front of you, what do you do then? Curl into a ball or do you put your FIST through him?" The Shredder said, curling his hand into a ball and throwing another solid punch cleanly through the block of wood, leaving a clean hole.

"Begin." He ordered as he positioned her in front of an untouched block of wood. Young Miranda stared at this block of wood as she placed the tip of her fingers at one point on the wood as she landed a punch on the wood, not so surprisingly, it didn't dent, she tried again, this time, stinging her hand.

"You will spend at least one to two hours every day punching this block of wood until your arm becomes strong enough to make a hole." The Shredder ordered as he put the gauntlet back on his hand and left, leaving Miranda alone. Young Miranda didn't want to punch this block of wood, but she also didn't want The Shredder to beat her for insubordination, so she continued to punch at this block of wood, despite all the pain it caused to her hand, she kept punching at the wood fruitlessly until the skin from her knuckles began to peel away and blood would mark the wood.

Two hours later, The Shredder returned to check on her progress, she had bloodied her hand, but left no impact on the wood at all.

"No wonder you can't do it, you acquiesce to defeat before you even begin." The Shredder criticized as he sent Miranda to go eat, which Miranda did, cradling her hand, only to have it hurt the next day by continuously punching the wood.

And this was but one of the training methods Miranda underwent over the next few years of her life. She learned all the martial arts Shredder inflicted on Miranda, and was subsequently beaten or whipped when she failed, but every day for one to two hours, she was forced to continue to punch the wooden block as per Shredder's orders, despite all that time, she barely left so much as a dent. When Miranda was 11, she got into a fight with one of the other trainees and he shattered her right hand. When the Shredder broke up the fight and punished the trainee, he ordered Miranda to take bed rest and have her arm placed in a cast, his logic being "a broken sword is useless and ineffective in battle, I prefer to have my weapons in perfect shape."

Well, barely a day after he ordered Miranda to recover, he caught her outside back at the wooden blocks continuously punching at the block of wood.

"Miranda! I gave strict orders for you to rest your hand!" The Shredder yelled, Miranda turned to face her master, her right hand still in it's sling, but her left hand was all bloody.

"I had realized my left hand needed strengthenin' too master!" Young Miranda responded before she turned back and continued to punch at the wood with her left hand, ignoring the pain. The Shredder watched her punch away as a smalls mile formed behind his mask.

Of course, this didn't stop Miranda from her other training as well, she just substituted her left hand as her right hand continued to heal, even when her right hand recovered, she went on punching away at the wood, not even worrying if she would break her hand again. Miranda was now indoctrinated into the Shredder's training, but deep down, she yearned to be free, she yearned to escape and find her parents again, this, more than anything, kept her from fully becoming Shredder's mind slave like all the other trainees. By 12, The Shredder took her under his wing and taught her his own special line of martial arts and even though he said she didn't have to, Miranda continued to punch at the block of wood every day, though this time, switching both hands.

Then, on Miranda's 15th birthday, the Shredder was going about his routine to check on his trainees and was walking past the wood punching area that Miranda was at, still punching away at the wood, he was nearly the turn of the corner when a certain sound made him stop in his tracks. He turned around and slowly returned to the area as his eyes widened in surprise and delight. Miranda, panting heavily, sweat forming on her forehead, blood on her left knuckles and her right hand through the block of wood she had been punching away at for nine years. Miranda stared at the block of wood in amazement as she pulled her hand out of the hole she made as The Shredder walked up behind her and looked at her progress, she turned her head and looked up at Shredder, panting heavily.

"I…I did it…"Miranda said softly.

"Anyone can do it once." The Shredder said as Miranda gave a sort of grin as she turned her attention to another untouched block of wood, she delivered a fierce blow right through the block of wood with one punch, the sound of wood splintering and creaking making it clear Miranda's hands were lethal, she pulled her hand back out and looked up at Shredder excitedly as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Get changed, I have a special assignment for you..." He said.

Unbeknownst to him, he had set the stones for Miranda's chance to escape from his encampment and return to America.

* * *

Miranda's flashback ended as she opened her eyes in the dark, determination in her eyes.

She knew what she had to do.

Miranda placed her hands not eh ceiling of her coffin again and knocked on certain places, trying to find a weak spot, eventually, she heard a spot as she kept her hand on that spot and she positioned her hand properly, curling it into a ball.

"Okay Shredder…here I go…" Miranda said silently as she began to punch at that spot. She hadn't exactly lost her strength, but Miranda hadn't kept up her wood punching exercises for the last few years, what would have been easy to do with one blow, Miranda now had to dedicate a series of punches in one spot. The same stinging pain shot through her hand, but she bit the bullet and kept punching in this one spot.

As she punched away, her mind went to all the people she knew that she imagined them voicing support. Her foster sister Alison, her stern yet lovable boss Herbert, her co-workers, Marcus and Candice, even Shredder, despite cutting all ties to him. But most of all, she imagined the Turtles, Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and even Raphael, all voicing support, giving her the motivation to keep punching at the wood.

Her efforts were reward with the sound of wood cracking. She kept punching in that spot, feeling dirt pour through the cracks and land on her body. She was getting through. She pounded away even harder at the wood, trying to free herself, eventually punching right through the wood to feel the dirt outside as it all began to pour into the coffin, she closed her eyes and mouth as all the dirt soon began to fill her coffin…

* * *

On the surface of Trinity's Wall Street graveyard, it poured light raindrops. Near a grave that read "Here lies Xiao Mei, the woman warrior who was too blind to stay out of danger." Standing over the grave, an umbrella in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other was Charles Hughes. He had canceled a meeting to come here when he had learned that the Wutang Clan had captured and buried Miranda alive. He didn't cry, he didn't mourn, he just looked down on the grave with a look of regret on his face.

"Sigh* damn it…I admit, you were starting to grow on me. You reminded me a lot of my sister in a few ways…I know I didn't seem to care, but you always had my respect." Charles said softly, he tossed the flowers onto he grave mound as he placed his hand into his pocket and stood there for a moment longer contemplating what he could do now that his major chess piece was gone. It was starting to look like he would have forfeit the match in this case. The other turtles Miranda kept in contact with would never listen to him and it wouldn't be long before the Wutang Clan would find their lair and wipe them out. He gave a nod to the grave to show his respects as he turned and began to walk away. He had barely gone more than a few steps when he stopped in place and tilted his head up, listening. He heard something that wasn't the rain.

He slowly turned around as he saw the grave mound moving slightly, his eyes widening in surprise before a smile formed on his face.

"Well I'll be damned…" Charles said softly as he slowly walked over and watched as the grave mound continued to shift. it almost looked like it was breathing before eventually, a dirt-covered hand burst out from the ground.

Miranda pulled her upper body out of the dirt, taking a deep breath of fresh air before she pulled her other hand out and began to cough excess dirt that got in through her mouth and nose. She was filthy, she had mud and dirt and rocks in her hair, her right hand was muddy and bloody, dirt had gone down through her cleavage and other unmentionable places. Nevertheless, she looked over and saw a cross as she gave a silent thanks as she laid her head not eh dirt, panting exhaustedly.

"I take it hell ran out of room so they just left you go?" Charles finally spoke up, Miranda leaned her head out of the mud to look up at Charles, dressed in black, she saw the moon shining behind him with a few street lights as well. He extended his hand to hers to help pull her out. Miranda just stared at his hand and then back at him with a distrusting gaze.

"For the record…I had nothing to do with this…I only found out about a half hour ago this happened…" Charles said in his usual tone, but Miranda could hear a sense of concern in his voice this time. She looked up at him, rain dripping on her head, her feet trying to get out of this dirt, she eventually nodded as she placed her hand in his.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Chapter Song: In My Time of Dying - Led Zeppelin

* * *

Miranda stood in the large shower, hot water running all over her as all the dirt, rocks, blood and mud trickled down her body.

Miranda had seemingly done the impossible and escaped death's clutches. She had broken out of the coffin the Wutang Clan buried her in and dug her way out of the ground. She didn't expect Charles Hughes, the president and owner of Color Hughes Advertising and also a mole leaking information about the Wutang Clan to her, to be there as he helped pull her out of her grave as he took her into his limo and brought her to his apartment to help her. She didn't really protest, her muscles were sore, she was tired and very dirty.

She placed her head in the stream of water as she heard rocks land on the floor below. She parted the hair from her vision as she looked around the shower. For a rich guy, his shower wasn't as highly advanced as most rich people would have, it didn't have five openings where water would spray at you from all sides, the shower head itself gave out this nice stream of water that was enough to cover her body. She saw that a small shelf that held, neatly, a wash rag, a small bottle of shampoo, a bar of soap with the paper around it. The walls of the shower were white in front of her and on her right side, behind her and to her left were glass walls that distorted the view from inside and out.

Miranda took the soap and began to use it to clean out any spot the water couldn't clean of dirt, she needed this shower like you wouldn't believe, considering the day she had. She then realized she had no idea how long she had been in that coffin, she made a note to ask Mr. Hughes once she got out. She applied the soap to her face as the face paint she applied was already covered from the dirt, both of which ran down her body along with the suds. She took the shampoo bottle and gave her hair a deep cleaning, she didn't really care if her hair got dirty or not, she use to lie in tall grass and let bugs run up her head and not care, at least until her mother freaked out and forced her to wash out her hair and wear a hat from then on whenever she went out.

Miranda let all these thoughts and suds wash down the drain as she then lowered her head to the wall, letting the hot water run down her backside as her mind thought back to being in the presence of the Rizza and she could have headbutted him or used her teeth to grab his nose, literally anything to make him bleed. She then realized that wouldn't have happened if she would have looked at the drugged cigarette Wesley gave her instead of dwelling on other matters. It made her angry that she punched the wall, causing her to yell in pain as she quickly grabbed her hand as she slid down to the floor. She finally opened her eyes from the pain as she looked at how raw her knuckles were, the skin had been peeled and her flesh looked damaged. Even back in Tokyo when Shredder had her punching wood for training, her hand never looked this raw.

This was the kind of injury that showed she was fighting for her life.

"Is everything all right in there?" She heard Charles' voice from outside the bathroom call in. She looked up as she finally stood up, taking the soap in her other hand to clean out her other areas of dirt.

"Y-Yeah. Where's th' first aid?" Miranda called back.

"Behind the mirror over the sink. You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, it's nothin' I can't handle."

"All right. Do you want some green tea?" Charles called through the door, Miranda was never one for Green tea, but after the time she had, green tea sounded amazing to her right now.

"Yeah, yeah that sounds good Mr. Hughes." Miranda called back as she heard him walking away. She may have been showering, but she kept her other senses open trying to hear in case he may have been trying to peak on her.

Eventually, Miranda turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, near the door was a shelf of clean white towels and a few bathrobes. She took the towel first as she dried her body off, being careful around her hand, as she dried off her hair, walking over to the mirror and opened it up looking for medical gauze strips and medical tape to hold the gauze on her injury. Once she did that, she put everything back and closed the mirror, looking the mirror itself, Miranda had finally noticed how thin she looked. She had meat on those bones, don't get her wrong, but she really didn't look that great, she looked tired and she felt like shit. She had the body that any girl would kill for, but Miranda knew first hand that consequences of "killing for" a body like this, looking at her hand as proof.

Miranda eventually wrapped the towel around her hair as she took the bath robe and covered her naked body with it. Looking around the bathroom, it too was really boring. Light blue paint, tile flooring, one medium size portrait of the ocean, geez, there was practically no life to this bathroom. It felt as though he had hired someone to decorate this room but he added nothing to it that said anything about himself, apart from shaving creams and cologne. Miranda looked down at the floor and noticed she just threw her muddy clothing right there, along with her undergarments which she was surprised to also get soaked in mud and dirt. She bundled them up and looked around for some hamper or a place to place them so Charles wouldn't touch them. Just as she was looking around, she heard another knock at the door.

"Yes?" Miranda responded.

"Your tea is ready Miranda." Charles said through the door.

"Thank you Mr. Hughes…" Miranda said, she looked down at her clothing, no way she was going to wear this dirty thing or the bath robe with him. She still wasn't exactly going to trust him after what she went through; it was his own bodyguard that betrayed her to the Wutang Clan, even though he insisted he had nothing to do with that kidnapping, she couldn't afford to be too careful, but she felt the need to ask, "Um, Mr Hughes, ya wouldn't happen t' have anything clean I can wear would ya?"

"I might have a pair of pajamas that may fit your size, it's conservative wear so it won't be anything too revealing." He said behind the door. "You see the white handle connected to a shelf?" Miranda looked around until she found one close to where she had original thrown her dirty clothes at.

"Yeah."

"Just pull it out and place your clothing there, the building's laundry team will have it clean by the morning." he said calmly through the door. Miranda pulled out the shelf, she first checked her pockets to ensure there was anything of value in them to be kept. She found none so she placed it in this laundry shelf as she pushed it back into the wall and heard her clothing going down a tube.

"Okay, open th' door a crack and pass the pajamas to me." Miranda said, Charles did as she asked, never so much as even looking in the direction of the door opening, Miranda took the pajamas as he closed the door behind him and walked away, Miranda removed the bath robe and tried on these pajamas.

* * *

Charles placed the tray with a tea kettle and glass cups on the glass coffee table in front of a luxurious couch that that also bent to a 90 degree angle. Charles' penthouse was nothing to brag about. it was big, sure and he spared no expense to make it look classy, but it didn't exactly say anything about him, minus several statues that resembled chess pieces, even on his coffee table, there was a checkerboard with chess pieces on each side, looking ready and willing to play.

The rest of his penthouse, was just as you would expect, large windows that showed the glamor of New York City's night life, glass chandeliers, a porch and a swimming pool, but the reality of it was that this was all for show, Charles never really used much of this stuff, he just didn't have the time. It was a saturation of light blue colors for the walls that really showed him as a dull, dull uninteresting person that he wanted you to think of him as.

Miranda eventually came out of the bathroom, a towel still on her head with the dark blue pajamas on her body. They were a little big for her, but at least they were large enough to hide her naked body.

"The tea is right here, Miranda, please have a seat." Charles said calmly, Miranda noticed he had removed his business jacket and had rolled his collared shirt sleeves up to his elbows. His hair didn't seem to want to stay slicked back so he used his finger to push it to the side instead of up his head. These details weren't really that important, but very rarely had she ever seen Charles look like this out in his office or in the streets.

"Thank you…" Miranda said as she walked over to the couch and sat behind one side of the coffee table that housed a side of white chess pieces. Charles took the kettle and poured green tea into one of the cup and calmly handed it to Miranda. She gently took it and sipped down, tea was never her favorite drink, but right now, she needed anything. She saw a blanket near her as she gently took it and wrapped it over her shoulders, Charles didn't seem to protest about this. "How…how long was I…?"

"The Wutang Clan held you in their captivity for two days, you were underground for almost 27 hours…" Charles said softly, Miranda was shocked to hear she had survived for that long, guess her luck was better than she thought it was.

"Are you hungry at all?" Charles said calmly. This was definitely different, Charles was mostly reserved and seemed to not care at all, but now he seemed actually worried. Perhaps this stemmed from guilt knowing it was his own manservant that had her betrayed or that she had passed out in his limousine on the way to his penthouse, the guesses were ongoing.

"Yeah actually I am…" Miranda said, Charles nodded as he made his way to the kitchen. Miranda looked around this penthouse suite and noticed the only things that stood out as looking like it had actually been chosen were all the Chess related art. She sat there silently, drinking her tea and watching the rain pour outside the windows as something she had nearly forgotten popped into her mind while sitting here looking at the chess pieces, almost like the pieces finally clicked in her head from last week when Donatello was searching for Charles' personal history. Charles returned to the couch with a plate of sandwiches, from the looks of it, turkey sandwiches, but each one cut at a 45 degree angle.

"Here, hope you're not a vegetarian." Charles said as Miranda took one of the sandwiches and bit off the end, a little too much mustard, but otherwise, not bad.

"Thank you…Harold." Miranda said, Charles seemed to freeze as he reached for his cup of tea before slowly grabbing it in his hand and lifting it towards him.

"You're welcome, but I've never once been named 'Harold' before." Charles said, Miranda could tell he was lying, time to press him.

"I know who ya really are, Harold Lundegaard, yer missing child report said ya were an avid fan of chess, th' chess memorabilia gave ya away." Charles didn't really respond to this, but he just gave a sort of bemused smirk as he sipped his tea.

"All right, I'm game, if I am who you say I am, then how would you know about this passion for chess when that missing child report went missing years ago?" Charles said, Miranda calmly sipped her tea.

"Let's say yer sources may be good, but mine are better. Ya may have deleted th' report, but you forgot t' remove th' Minnesota newspaper clippings from th' records." Miranda said, she stared at him, trying to get a reaction to see if her theory was correct. Charles just stared at her before finally cracking his straight face into a grin as he shook his head and chuckled.

"Gotta hand it to ya Miranda, you're far smarter than I took you for." Charles said, but his flat tone was dropped, in fact, it was clear she had broken his ruse, his Minnesota roots clearly leaking out through his accent as the sing-song tone of Northern Minnesota was clearly indicating his origins, Miranda smiled at her victory as she took another bite of her sandwich, she was starting to realize how hungry she was.

"So, you went from a th' son of a middle-class farm hand worker t' running one of th' biggest advertising agencies in th' country, how did ya pull that off, I gotta ask." Miranda said as Charles finished his tea.

"Ooh, well, when I ran away from home, I made my way south, taking on small jobs to pay for food and what have ya. Eventually I made my way to a prep school and managed to meld with all the other students by copying some cripple kid's identification." Charles said, laying back against the couch, a sort of smile on his face to be able to be open like this to someone and not have to pretend to be someone he's not.

"Hmm, so how'd ya get th' name Charles Hughes, Mr. Lundegaard?" Miranda asked, finishing her sandwich and reaching for another one.

"I took the names of the most successful businessmen I looked up to when I was in the prep school; Charles Foster Kane and Howard Hughes. I knew that if everyone knew I was born of humble roots, I wouldn't be taken as seriously, so as I built my reputation and my wealth, I made careful steps to make sure my past couldn't be dug up." Charles said.

"Well, ya definitely took clever steps t' hide it, fer th' most part." Miranda said before taking another bite of her sandwich, "but why did ya run away from home?" Charles smile slowly faded as he looked down to his tea cup.

"Around the time, my mother had died, leaving me, my two brothers and my younger sister with my father. Mind you, I had no ill-qualms against my father, he never laid a hand on any of us, though God knows we had it comin', he never drank, he never gambled, but things were really hard after my mother died. He had to work longer hours to support all of us." Charles grew silent for a moment as Miranda silently ate her sandwich to listen to him. "He lost his job on my 13th birthday after an on sight accident. Dad wanted to sue but he couldn't afford a lawyer. It was a really miserable birthday, first of many for me. I made the decision that it would be easier for my dad if there was one less mouth to feed, so at night, I ran away, my sister Lindsey caught me so I told her I was going job-searching to help dad and she believed me…that was the last actual conversation I had with her…"

"When was th' last time you saw yer sister?" Miranda questioned.

"May 2007, my father had died and I came to pay my respects as well as to pay for his funeral, but my brothers and sister didn't even recognize me and they shooed me away…that was the last time I saw my family…" Charles then looked back to Miranda, "of course I still paid for the funeral by sending them money through fake names to make them think they had a lot of people who had sympathy for their loss…but still…I just couldn't bear to tell them I was their long-lost brother…there was so much pain from dad's death that I couldn't let focus their anger on me…" Miranda put down her half-eaten sandwich as she moved a bit closer to Charles and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever pain you caused yer family in th' past, they would have been more than happy t' know their brother wasn' dead an that he was doing really well fer himself." Miranda said calmly. He looked like he was ready to cry, but he never allowed himself to, he was allowing himself to be himself but he still imposed control for himself.

"Sigh* I dunno…just something in the way Lindsey looked at me when I came to Dad's funeral…" Charles turned his head to look at Miranda, "was practically the same look on your face when I offered my hand to pull you out of the grave…" Finally, something clicked in Miranda's head as the pieces fell together.

"Do I…remind you of yer sister?" Miranda asked, Charles looked at her for a moment before finally nodding. "Thought so, no one as heartless as ya act like would be this nice t' someone ya barely know- outside of background search…" Miranda quickly added before Charles could say so.

"Lindsey was a very tenacious person, very outspoken and stern, but could also be gentle and soft when the situation called for it. So yeah, you aren't wrong when you remind me of my sister." Miranda wasn't sure what to say to this, so she said the only thing that came to her mind as her eyes turned to the chess pieces on the table.

"Want t' play a game?"

* * *

Light shining through the windows woke Miranda from the best sleep she had for a good long time as she slowly stirred and sat up in this huge bed soft bed. At first, she initially panicked thinking she was tricked into having sex, but she looked under the covers to find her pajamas were still on. She looked around and found she was all alone, but on the table in the corner of the room, Miranda saw her clothes, clean, folded and neatly wrapped with a cleaning service insignia on it, but only only that, Miranda's eyes widened as she pulled back the covers and walked over to the table as she saw her prized jacket laying there along with her cleaned clothes. She grabbed the jacket as she hugged it close to her body. This was her father's jacket, she thought she had lost it when the Wutang Clan had kidnapped her. She looked down and saw most of her things that the Wutang Clan took from her when she was captured was here, all except for her katana blade.

She then noticed a note near all her things as she picked it up and read it, a $100 dollar bill slipping out as she looked at the note.

_"Managed to get all this back from the Wutang Clan for you, Gizza refused to give up your sword. _

_I had to get to work early, breakfast is in the kitchen under a platter for you._

_Here's $100 for cab fare, I suggest you stay low for a while._

_Don't worry about your day life, I called your boss and notified them you've caught a bug and you're at home recovering._

_- Harold_

_P.S. Tell anyone my real identity and I'll do worse than beat you 5 times at Chess."_

Miranda gave a grin as she tore the note and began to take off the pajamas, it then came to her that the Wutang Clan were planning to destroy America's financial chain so they could introduce mass genocide to the country. She had to stop them, but she knew after the last time, she couldn't go in unprepared and without backup. She clenched her hand into a fist when she realized there was only one person who could help her stand a chance with the Wutang Clan…

* * *

"Miranda?! Oh my God, is that you? Where have you been? It's been nearly three days!" Leonardo said as Miranda stormed her way past Donatello and Leonardo without saying anything, but she had determination set on her mind.

"I was buried alive by th' Wutang Clan but I dug myself out, now please, excuse me." Miranda said as she walked past them, Raphael had turned a corner when he turned and saw Miranda, a look of surprise on his face.

"M-Miranda? Miranda, whatever I said-" Raphael began before Miranda slowed down and put her hands on the edges of his shell and looked him in the eye.

"Raph, right now, whatever we said t' one another means jack shit after all I've been through and what's gonna happen if I don't talk t' yer master, now please, where's Splinter?" Miranda said, Raphael was surprised that Miranda's first thing to say after returning was where Splinter was, but he recognized that look in her eye and he knew that whatever he had to say, it was going to have to wait.

"He's meditating in his room…" Raphael said pointing her int he right direction as she made her way to Splinter's room, opening the door and closing it behind her as she kicked off her boots before slowly approaching Splinter who say calmly in the middle of the room meditating.

"Well, I never expected you to come back here. The boys were genuinely worried about you, why then do you feel the need to bother me?" Splinter said without even looking at Miranda. Miranda said nothing but she dropped down to her knees and bowed her head low to Splinter.

"Please…I need yer help…." Miranda's voice cracked, it pained her pride to ask this rodent for help, but she didn't have a choice. Splinter broke his mediation as he slowly turned his body around and faced her bowing towards him.

"Well, this is new. Tell me, what brought you to stoop so low as to ask a 'rodent' to help you?" Splinter said, clearly still bitter about her comments from before.

"I…th Wutang Clan caught me off guard…they tortured me…an' they buried me alive…" Miranda said, trying to hold back tears from all she had been through, this was rather humiliating to her to have to kiss up to Splinter after all they had said between each other. Even though her head was down, she heard a small gasp escape from Splinter's mouth when she said she had been buried alive.

"B…buried you alive?" Miranda nodded.

"Yes…I only managed t' escape 'cause…'cause I didn't want t' die…" Miranda said.

"Not for revenge against the Wutang Clan or for your honor?" Splinter said, trying to see if this was just a ruse to humiliate him.

"Th' only thing that kept me punching at the coffin lid and digging to the top through th' dirt was to see my friends an' family again…including yer sons…" Miranda confessed.

"Then tell me…why did you come back here instead of your family and friends?" Splinter said.

"Splinter…I beseech you…teach me everything ya know about Shaolin and Wutang…cause if I can't stop them, then they'll destroy any resistance in their way t' mass genocide across th' country…please…I beg of you…Hamato Yoshi…" Miranda added before bowing her forehead to the ground wither hands forward. There was silence for a moment before Splinter got up and walk over to Miranda where he took his hand and lifted her head off the ground, tears already beginning to leak from her eyes.

"Know this…I know very little about Wutang fighting style and my Shaolin is incredibly rusty…but I can show you a way to use your enemies' abilities against each other…" Splinter said, Miranda straighted herself as she wiped her tears with her sleeve.

"Thank you…master…" Miranda replied to Splinter.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Chapter Songs: Remember The Name - Fort Minor

Behind Closed Doors - Charlie Rich

Take a Bow - Muse

(I couldn't pick one that could represent the entire chapter ^^;;; )

* * *

Training with Splinter was quite a curve than what Miranda was use to. For years, Miranda's training with the Shredder was brutal and intense, many of her training sessions were rewarded with abuse for failing. Splinter's training was more patient. Most of his training for her was about meditation and controlling her rage and anger through balancing exercises, but he also taught her Shaolin techniques, he would show her the moves and she would imitate the moves until they became familiar to her. Whenever she had a leg or arm placement wrong, he never hit her with his stick or yelled at her; he just ordered her to stop and he would adjust her hands and leg and then tell her to continue. This went on for at least two weeks and in that time, the police began to take action to quell the rise of Wutang activities in New York, it wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

Splinter had also lifted his restriction on the boys to leave the lair and he allowed them to assist the police to quell the gang movement on the city territories, but what made a difference was Raphael's idea to convince the criminal underworld to fight back against the Wutang, his reason being, a lesser evil had to be countenanced for the greater good. It angered Miranda to know that criminals were running throughout he streets, but Splinter only told her to put down her anger and continue her training.

But not all of Miranda's time was spent on training, she returned to work after a few days since her near-death experience and managed to balance her time. She kept in contact with Charles who managed to send message through codes to Miranda so she could relay them to the Boys to check it out when she met with them. She had to be really careful since she couldn't leap on rooftops anymore for fear of the Wutang spies learning she was still alive and try to make a move on her and her friends. In her mind, there were two important things in her life right now; help New York as Miss Meija in the day time and at night, learn the art of Shaolin and Wutang Style from Splinter. Her time with Splinter was good, Splinter began to let go of his distrust of Miranda and began to address her as Miranda-san. After the two weeks of just learning the movements of Shaolin, Splinter allowed practice spars with the other boys who stayed in the lair while the others were out. Mostly, Michelangelo was her sparring partner, much to his regret as Miranda would always manage to flip him on his back, eventually Raphael began to take Michelangelo's place, proving to be more of a match for her. She liked fighting with him, but she could never get a moment alone with Raphael with how busy she was with Splinter's training and Raphael's activities to push back the Wutang Clan.

Nearing the end of the month, the Wutang had managed to be kept at bounds by a combination of the police and criminal underworld and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Miranda's training under Splinter was going incredibly well as Miranda found herself adept at Shaolin's art of using the opponent's energy and attack against them to throw Michelangelo on her back or deflect any practice blows from Raphael. She was making real good progress, it even impressed Splinter as today, they sparred with one another and Miranda not only managed to deflect his attacks from his walking stick, but she felt remarkably calm. Keeping calm was difficult at first since she had been trained all her life to strike first and be the last one to hold a sword in her hand. Splinter's imposed mediation rules were to help her focus her energy to be more passive like the Shaolin monks who used their techniques for defense. That was tricky, but Miranda soon got the hang of it.

As they sparred, Splinter surprised Miranda by tripping her as she fell on her back. Splinter nonetheless clapped at her effort.

"Very good, Miranda-san, you are improving."

"Yeah…but I still fell on th' floor." Miranda said through her panting as she looked up at him.

"Yes, you may be on the floor, but now you know where not to step so the next time, I would be on the floor instead of you." Splinter said calmly as he offered his hand to Miranda to held her stand up. "I feel my old bones are not as strong as they use to be, you may retire early for the night."

"If ya'd like, I could bring Raph in and we could spar-" Miranda suggested before Splinter gently patted her arm.

"It's quite all right Miranda-san. Sleep is good and you have been putting many late nights into these sessions, I would suggest a good night sleep to keep what you've learned fresh." Splinter said wisely, Miranda didn't argue.

"Of course, Splinter-sensai…" Miranda said, giving a slight bow to Splinter as he gave a warm grin and made his way to his room to rest as Miranda walked over to the table she left her water bottle and sweat towel as she wiped the sweat on her forehead and the back of her neck. She looked in a mirror and saw herself wearing her short number 13 tee-top, exposing her mid-drift and the tattoos she had acquired on her arms a long time ago, her boy shorts would be seen as sexualized for any ignorant perv, but they gave Miranda more flexibility to move her legs for kicks. Splinter complained at first, but he didn't complain when she showed results

At the sides of her torso, scars peaked around from her back to show the damage training under the Shredder had done to her over the years. She looked down at her right hand while unfastening the wrappings around her hand as she looked at her knuckles. They had healed very well since her desperate bid for freedom by breaking out of her coffin, but the scars were there, somewhat reddish-white marks on her knuckles to indicate where her flesh had been torn at. She squeezed her hand as she looked back at herself in the mirror, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to ease her mind and not dwell on that horrible memory.

"Breathe, relax, be at peace…" Miranda said to herself, immediately, her rage soothed as she eased her hand and applied the wrappings around her hand again before she too her regular night clothing and went behind a closed off section of the room to change out of her training gear.

Once she had done that, she left the training room and made her way to the lair's exit, going up the ladder. She had reached the top when she found Raphael was already up there working on her motorbike.

"Hey Raph." Miranda said, Raphael looked up at her and waved before he looked back at the bike and swore.

"Fuck…the accelerator's shot Mira…" Raphael said frustratingly.

"I thought there was somethin' up with this thing." Miranda said in an annoyed tone as she looked over Raphael's shoulder to look at the bike. "Damn, I'll have t' get a new one."

"Too bad mechanics don't open this late at night." Raphael said, shifting as he stood up with Miranda, looking over at her. "Hey…look…about what I said to you a month ago…"

"Water under th' bridge Raph, you were angry, I was angry. We didn't mean what we said." Miranda said.

"I know…but…I still can't help but feel so awful for even saying those things…" Raphael said, putting a hand on the back of his neck, Miranda held back a giggle at his modesty.

"Raph, ya don't have t' apologize, I should be the one apologizin' t' you." Miranda said. Raphael put down his hand and chuckles lightly.

"Hey, I was the one who tried to suggest you were doing it with that business exec, I should be apologizing." Miranda began to chuckle at this conversation.

"Well, it seems we both feel th' need to apologize t' one another but we can't agree who should go first."

"Yeah…I think i got an idea how to settle this." Raphael grinned as he exited the garage and leapt up to the roof. Miranda closed the garage behind her as she followed him up the roof, she missed being on the rooftops like this, the night air blowing through her hair as she looked over the city lights of New York. God, she missed this.

"How about a race to see who gets to apologize first?" Raphael said with a grin.

"But…but what if th' Wutang Clan sees us?" Miranda said.

"The police and the gangs are dealing with them, they barely come around this side of town anyway." Raphael said, Miranda was about to argue against this but she decided, 'eh, it's time spent with her friend, let's not waste it.'

"All right…yer on. Where's the finish line?" Miranda said with a grin.

"Huh…um…how about Central Park?" Raphael said.

"Nah, that's not much of a race. I know, the rooftop to my apartment." Miranda said.

"Ooh, now that is a race." Raphael said with a grin. "On the count of three, we'll go and the first one there, the loser has to accept their apology. Got it?"

"Yer on." Miranda said, putting his hand in his and shaking it on the bet as they both took their places.

"Okay, 1-" Raphael began to say before Miranda interrupted.

"3!" Miranda called out as she leapt to the next rooftop. Raphael quickly caught on as he also leapt to the next rooftop.

"Hey! No fair! I didn't count to 2!" Raphael called out as he tried to catch up.

"Yer too slow at countin', why don't ya take a nap, I'll be more than willin' to accept your apology!" Miranda said as she flipped over a chimney and slid down a skylight to leap over to a fire escape.

"Ha! Don't forget who won the race in that fairy tale!" Raphael called out as he leapt over the chimney and made it to the top of the fire escape to get ahead of Miranda.

Raphael and Miranda constantly kept passing one another through elaborate stunts a flips and jumps, playfully taunting one another as they did until Raphael had passed by Miranda and let over the street and nearly missed the ledge to Miranda's apartment building before he eventually steadied his balance and ran to the center, raising his arms in the air in victory.

"Whoo! All right! I'm number 1! The tortoise beats the hare again, baby!" Raphael called out excited as he looked back expecting Miranda but he didn't see her. "Miranda?" He became concerned as he looked over the edge and, to his surprise, Miranda was coming up right at him. While Raphael had made the leap across, Miranda had dropped down to grab the light pole below and swing around it to build up her momentum and reach the top in case raphael grabbed the edge with his hands and struggled to climb up. She didn't expect that he would be in her way as she landed right on him, forcing both of them to fall back as they all caught a moment to breathe after that shock.

"Woah, I thought you got left behind…" Raphael said, panting from shock.

"And I thought you were gonna hold onto th' edge an' climb up." Miranda said, her heart trying to slide back down her throat. Eventually, it finally took them a few seconds for the both of them to realize that Miranda was on top of Raphael in a very compromising position. This cause both of them to break into laughter as they looked at each other laughing at this accident. Miranda, without thinking, leaned over and kissed Raphael's forehead before leaning back to keep laughing with Raphael. Raphael was stunned by this as his laughter began to die down a bit. Without warning, he then leaned up and kissed Miranda's cheek, causing her laughter to die down as well as he leaned back. Eventually, both their laughter died down as they both stared at each other in silence.

Then, without warning, they closed the gap between their faces and their lips locked. Their minds went completely blank, reason was abandoned as their lips were interlocked between one another. Raphael's hands moved to Miranda's back as he rubbed her back. Miranda closed her eyes her hand moved up to his cheeks as she kissed him tenderly, the sounds of the night life was all that could be heard. After what felt like five minutes, Miranda shuddered as she broke the kiss and looked at Raphael's face, his cheeks felt warm from the reddish hue that appeared on his cheeks, his cheeks weren't the only ones that were warm. Miranda blinked as she took her hands off him.

"Ahem*…it's kinda cold up here…ya wanna go inside?" Miranda said quietly. Raphael took his hands off her and allowed Miranda to get off him as he stood up.

"Y-Yeah…yeah let's…" Raphael said awkwardly. Miranda went over to the edge as she lowered herself down to open the window, Raphael followed behind as he closed the window. They were silent for a moment as they stood in the living room, this level of awkward silence between them, Raphael rubbed the back of his head as he tried to find the words to break the silence.

"I…I'm sorry…" Raphael said, Miranda turned around to face him. "for saying those things before…and for…well, what happened on the roof-" Miranda stepped towards Raphael as she put her arms around him and hugged him close to her.

"Raph…jus' do me a favor…shut up and hold me…" Miranda said softly as she then looked up to Raphael and kissed him again lovingly. He didn't argue as put his arms around her body and returned her kiss. He didn't even pay attention when she slowly took his mask off and tossed it to the ground, but he did pay attention when she loosened her arms and slid the jacket off her body and let it fall to the ground.

Eventually, their actions moved to the bedroom where the real passion came out in full force.

That night, Miranda lost her virginity.

Did it hurt? Yes, at first.

Were they safe? Yes, though Raphael had to improvise with a plastic bag for protection. Well, okay, two plastic bags, better safe than sorry.

Did they enjoy it? Oh hell yes.

If you were to ask Miranda what was one of the best moments of her life years from now, she would have said reuniting with her family and losing her virginity to a turtle.

And she never apologized for it.

* * *

Miranda awoke to the sound of her alarm clock as she drowsily reached up and hit the snooze button on it. She yawned as she sat up, the covers covering her chest as she rubbed her eyes and situated herself. She noticed she wasn't wearing any clothes, not even her underwear. She then heard breathing as she looked to her side and saw Raphael sleeping on his side. Eventually, her memory of last night's eventually finally kicked in her tired mind as she smiled from last night's events. All the huffing and breathing, the sounds of the bed creaking, her hands entangled in his, if this was what she was missing, she would have brought him to bed a long time ago.

She snapped out of her sexual fantasy as she got out of bed, she felt sore in between her legs, so she took her steps a little easy, perhaps a shower would help ease the soreness.

"Nnh…where are you going?" she heard Raphael say sleepily. She turned around as she saw him look at her, his eyes half-open. She smiles as she walked back to him, her clothes for today in her hand as she leaned over and kissed his forehead.

"I have t' go t' work Raph. Sorry I can't stay an' snuggle longer, but some of us have t' pay t' live in our homes." Miranda said softly to her turtle lover.

"Will I see you again tonight?" Raphael said, looking up at her.

"Of course Raph. There's juice in th' fridge an' a granola bar in th' top cabinet. Now go back t' sleep, I have t' get goin' fer work." Miranda said, while putting a had to Raphael's cheek and giving it a soft rub. She lifted her hand from his cheek as she made her way to the bathroom to get herself ready for work.

* * *

"You slept with him?!" Alison said exasperated.

"Keep yer voice down sis, not everyone in th' office needs t' know." Miranda said while sorting through papers in her office.

"Look, I'm glad you finally popped your cherry and all that, but, but with a turtle?!" Alison said in shock.

"We just really clicked together. We were jus' racin' and near th' finish line, we landed on top of one'a 'nother. One thing led to another and, well, that's that. End of story." Miranda said defensively and embarrassingly. Alison stayed quiet before he walked over to Miranda and lowered her head close to Miranda's.

"Were you safe?"

"Yes. Though we did have to improvise with some plastic bags." Alison's eyes rose in surprise.

"Woah…was he good?"

"Alison! What kind'a question is that?" Miranda said surprised that Alison would even ask that.

"Hey, Brian treats me right, but he's so boring under the sheets-"

"Agh! TMI, sis! TMI!" Miranda said covering her ears, Alison laughed.

"TMI?" Herbert asked as he poked his head in, surprising Miranda and Alison.

"Uh…it's short for too much information…" Miranda said.

"I would think having enough information would be a good thing. How are those Zellman reports coming Miranda?" Herbert said.

"I got them right here boss." Miranda said, putting the last paper into a folder and holding it up to show Herbert.

"Excellent. Sick for a few days and you're already back on top. By the way, what was this 'tmi' thing about?" Herbert asked, Alison and Miranda looked at each other embarrassed.

"It's…kinda personal boss…" Miranda said with a faint blush on her cheeks.

"like, in the bedroom with a guy personal…" Alison finished off Miranda's question, immediately, Herbert finally got it.

"Say no more. I didn't know you were dating Miranda."

"I…I wasn't…he was a good friend for a long time…but one thing led to another and-" Miranda began before Herbert waved his hand off.

"I don't need to hear that part. Just keep up the good work." Herbert finally left the office room as Alison looked to Miranda and chuckled.

"He looked like he would have fainted to hear what happened." Alison giggled.

"And he's not th' only one who doesn't need t' know what happened either, ya don't need t' know all th' dirty details." Miranda said while organizing more papers.

"Come on sis, at least tell me what it was like?" Alison teasingly pleaded.

"…It was rough, I still hurt like fuckin' hell down there, that shell pressed up against me felt constrictive…" Miranda stayed silent for a moment before she finally looked up at Alison with a faint blush on her cheeks. "And it was exciting and sexy as hell…" Miranda and Alison giggled to one another, Alison placed a hand on Miranda's shoulder.

"Congratulations." Alison said in a respecting tone.

"Th- Thanks sis…" Miranda said softly to her foster sister.

* * *

Miranda stepped out of the cab a block away from the hidden lair as she carried a box carrying the replacement accelerator for her motorbike, thankfully the cab driver didn't really speak English, not like he could tell anyone about a woman stopping in a rather seedy part of town or could understand him. Miranda wore casual street clothes when she wasn't fighting off crime or at work; blue jeans, a dark tank top and blazer jacket. Her night life clothes she carried in a gym back hanging over her shoulder. The soreness she had from last night had finally subsided later in the day, she was thankful that Raphael was at least gentle last night at not so rough or she might have had to call in today to rest her legs.

She walked through the streets until she approached the hidden garage for the boys. She reached behind a brick and pushed on it to open the door as she stepped in and flicked on the lights to reveal other vehicles, including her motorbike. She saw Donatello messing around with the van as he looked up and waved to Miranda.

"Hey Miranda. What you got there?"

"Accelerator fer my bike. Th' old one was shot."

"Ah, leave it on the table and I'll install it for you." Donatello said.

"Thanks Donnie, yer a great pal."

"You seem cheerier than usual, good day?"

"Somethin' like that Donnie." Miranda said, hiding a faint blush. It was true, she had been feeling very cheery today. She had read that this was a common feeling after sex, she hadn't heard from Raphael all day and she felt the need to talk to him about last night, she needed to know about his reaction to the events that happened last night.

"You wanna tell me about it?" Donatello said as he owed his head back out from under the Turtle van.

"Uh…maybe later. Splinter waitin' fer me?" Miranda replied.

"Yeah. He suggested we all take the night off from fighting, fine by me, I needed time to get this thing fixed."

"Good luck wit' that Donnie." Miranda said as she placed her replacement accelerator on the table in it's box and made her way down the ladder to the lair as she immediately saw Raphael horse-playing with Michelangelo. She gave a grin seeing the two, some things never change.

Raphael looked up and saw Miranda, he immediately dropped his attention as Michelangelo slipped out of Raphael's grip and flipped Raphael on his chest as Michelangelo pinned on Raphael's left arm and held it behind him.

"AGH! Knock it off Mikey!" Raphael called out struggling to get out of Michelangelo's hold, Miranda just giggled as she walked over to the two.

"What's th' matter Raph, can't even get your good arm out from yer brother?" Miranda said teasingly.

"Shut up! I would have had him if ya didn't- YAGH! Not so hard Mikey!" Raphael called out.

"Say the magic word Raph." Michelangelo said while pulling back on Raphael's arm.

"Argh! Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!" Raphael yelled out while his other hand was slamming on the ground. Michelangelo finally released Raphael's arm as Mikey playfully jogged in place while raising his arms in celebration.

"Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Cowabunga baby! Who's number 1 badass? I'm number 1 badass! Who-" Michelangelo called on joyfully before Miranda surprised him by grabbing his arm and flipping him over her body and landing him on his back.

"Cowabunga? Geez, what urban dictionary did ya pick up that one from?" Miranda said with a giggle as he placed her foot on Michelangelo's shell. Raphael chuckled as he picked himself up and walked over to help pick Michelangelo up as he gave a brother nudge in the shoulder.

"Celebrate it while you can, next time, you'll be hollering 'Uncle,' bro." Raphael said giving his brother a friendly shoulder pat before sending Michelangelo off. Miranda smiled at this bit of family behavior. Seeing family love like this, whether she was on or off work, always lifted Miranda's spirits to know people weren't completely heartless. Raphael then turned and looked at Miranda an uncomfortable silence fell between them.

"Hey…" Raphael finally said.

"Raph, I know what's on yer mind and I just want you t' know." Miranda said before she moved up to Raphael and hugged him, resting her head on his shell. "I don't regret'a single moment of it…" Raphael placed his hands on her shoulders as he looked in her eyes.

"I just…I just didn't want you to think that what happened wasn't special…what we did meant so much to me Mira…" Raphael said softly to Miranda, Miranda blushed. "I just want you to know that I think you're an amazing woman that always impresses me no matter what you do…I lo-" Miranda put a finger on his mouth as she gave a grin.

"Ya had me at 'hey,' big boy…" Miranda said softly as Raphael smiled. Miranda lowered her finger as she and Raphael gently rested their foreheads together as they held one another for a moment before they heard someone coming and they calmly composed themselves.

"Maybe we should pick a better time t' tell th' others…" Miranda said.

"Does this mean-?" Raphael began to ask as Miranda answer for him.

"We'll talk later 'bout labels…but my answer fer you is yes…" Miranda said as she gave a confirming kiss on Raphael's cheek and leaning back just as Leonardo arrived.

"Miranda, you said you had lost your turtle phone, right?" Leonardo said to her.

"Yeah, th' Wutang took it when they kidnapped me. Why?"

"You might want to come with me to hear this…" Leonardo said, he seemed a little worried, Miranda and Raphael followed as they walked over to Donatello's computer monitors. Donatello was plugging in some cords here, some cords there while Michelangelo stared at Donatello plugging in this and that.

"Donnie, what's th' problem?" Miranda asked.

"Someone called us…using a land line. I'm trying to rewire cords and wires so they can't trace us." Donatello said concerned. "I still have the guy on hold."

"Put him on speaker…" Leonardo said. Donatello plugged the phone into the speakers. "Sorry for the wait sir, how can we help you?"

"Yes, There wouldn't happen to be a Miranda Meija there, would it?" the man on the phone said, Miranda immediately recognized the voice.

"Mr. Hughes?" Miranda said to the speakers.

"Ah, there you are Miranda." Charles said through the speakers. "I assume the other voices I heard are your friends, correct?"

"Yeah, how'd you get this number?" Raphael said defensively.

"That's where I have to be the bearer of bad news: The Wutang Clan made this call…they know about me and all of you." Charles voice said as then the sound of his chair being pushed away could be heard.

"I wouldn't have believed it myself until I heard your little voice again." Another voice came throughout he speakers, a shiver went down Miranda's spine in recognition.

"Th' Old Dirty Bastard…" Miranda said under her breath.

"Glad you remember me, hot stuff…" Miranda groaned at hearing that, "we heard from one of our very loyal Killer Bees that someone was leaking private information, I just didn't think it would have been our 'dear friend' Charles Hughes and after all the good work you did for us…"

"I hardly call your work rewarding for me and my company when you turn in a very little profit…" Charles said in a rather angry but monotone voice, the sound of a smack could be heard as Miranda heard other voices, one voice she immediately recognized.

"Wesley, you traitor. Ya turned in yer own boss?"

"Mr. Hughes is insignificant to the Wutang Clan. They are my masters…" Wesley's voice heard through the speakers. Miranda tightened her fist into her hand.

"Miranda…" Raphael said softly to Miranda.

"Ya cowards! If I wuz there, ya all would be shittin' your pants like blood!" Miranda yelled at them, what she hated was that she was unable to do anything to stop them from hurting someone she had finally grown to trust, she hated feeling useless while hearing someone unable to defend themselves.

"An interesting offer…I have a better one, why don't your friends surrender, you come down to the office so you and I can get better…acquainted." the voice of the Old Dirty Bastard spoke, Miranda grimaced at this.

"You filthy scumbag! I'd like to see you talk that way in front of her instead of hiding behind a phone!" Raphael yelled out at the speakers. Miranda looked at Raphael sticking up for her, she gave a smile for Raphael chivalry.

"Says the cowards hiding from us! We'll give you a half hour to agree to our demands or your important boss man will be a head shorter. heh heh heh…"

"You son of a bitch…you really are an old dirty bastard…" Leonardo said appalled, this won only the sounds of laughter from the speakers of the other Killer Bees on the other line.

"Tell me, if you kill me, how do you intend to continue to use my company to fund your illegal actions?" Charles' voice come through on the phone.

"Well, 'boss,' I broke through your encrypted files and I know your bank accounts. If Miranda refuses to come and we kill you, the numbers are ours and so is your company." Wesley's voice replied on the phone.

"Not like it'd matter, by tomorrow, the Wutang will strike against Wall Street, once we cut off America's flow of money, they'll have to agree to our demands and then, we move out and remove the seat of power and Master Rizza will crown himself king of this 'New World.'" The Old Dirty Bastard called out in glee, Miranda was so angry.

"Miranda, please, don't go, they're baiting you…" Leonardo said to Miranda.

"Yes…and it's working…I can't sit around while they hold a sword up to Mr. Hughes-" Miranda began to say before Charles' voice came through the phone.

"Miranda…36 Constant Horrors Amaze My Brain Entering Real Society…" Charles voice came through the speakers as Miranda looked back in confusion.

"What?"

"I'm Name-dropping, Cannibal Hosts Inside Narcotics Anonymous Together Or Without Nirvana…" Charles continued.

"What the hell is he saying?" Raphael said confused, Miranda ignored him and paid attention.

"Don't Out Yourself Entirely, Remain Strong, Save The Radical Earth….Except Tibet…do you understand Miranda?"

"You pig!" The Old Dirty Bastard yelled out as Miranda heard another loud slap to flesh, "how dare you use Vital information against us, for that, you're gonna die!"

"I may not be the one to stop the Wutang Clan…but I know somebody that will very soon…" Charles said calmly, Miranda could tell that he wasn't talking to the Old Dirty Bastard, but he was addressing her. "Tell me, you Old Dirty Bastard…do you like chess?"

"What?" The Old Dirty Bastard questioned.

"Let me tell you something…A game of chess is like a sword fight…" Charles said calmly, but Miranda could hear intent in his voice over the phone.

"Is that a button?" She heard a Killer Bee speak over the phone, Miranda's eyes shot open with realization.

"You must think first, before you move…" Charles finished, the sound of an explosion and the dial tone disconnect followed by a slight rumble in the Lair told all what had happened.

"He…he didn't…" Leonardo said with surprise on his face.

"He did Leo…" Miranda said with shock in her voice, she walked over to a table and rested her hands on the table and looked down; once again, she failed to save another friend…

"He did what?" Michelangelo said confused.

"He blew himself up along with the Old Dirty Bastard…" Raphael said, finally putting the pieces together.

"Guess that means we're the ones having to make the collect call." Donatello tried to joke, nobody laughed.

"Donnie…shut the fuck up…" Raphael said as he walked over to Miranda and placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't cry or form tears, she just gave a moment of silence for her fallen friend.

"Now what? There's no way we could stop them from taking over Wall Street tomorrow." Michelangelo said.

"Yes there is…" Miranda finally said, she took her hands off the table, raised her head as she turned, Raphael's hand sliding off her shoulder as she turned and faced the others, "We go after th' Wutang Clan on their home ground…"

"What?!" Leonardo said surprised.

"Miranda, I know you're upset, but think about this for a minute…we don't know where the Wutang Clan is-" Raphael tried to say to Miranda to try and at least get her to think logically, Miranda cut him off as she looked back at him.

"Yes we do…th' 36th Chambers…" Miranda said intently.

"But we don't know where that is! I've tried searching all the search engines, we don't know where the 36th Chambers is." Donatello said, Miranda looked back at all of them.

"Yes we do…Mr. Hughes told us with his dyin' words…Doyers Street, Chinatown…" Miranda said sternly and with determination.


End file.
